[elrepo] lirc_serial recommendation?

[Akemi Yagi]

On Sun, Jan 4, 2015 at 4:46 AM, Phil Perry <phil at elrepo.org> wrote:
> On 04/01/15 01:08, Wade Berrier wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> What is the recommended way to install or build an lirc_serial package?
>> It's in the kernel staging area.
>>
>> I see that fedora ships staging drivers, but not enterprise linux.
>>
>> I'm specifically interested in el7.
>>
>> Recommendations to proceed?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Wade

> Hi Wade,
>
> We have two options. We can either build the modules within a kernel or
> build them as standalone kmod (kernel module) packages.
>
> If you are a CentOS user we could ask Akemi if she would consider
> enabling these modules within the CentOS-Plus kernel - that is an el7
> kernel maintained by the CentOS project within which they have the
> flexibility to enable drivers (or apply patches) that Red Hat have
> chosen to ignore.
>
> The other option is that elrepo builds the driver as a standalone kmod
> package for you, backported from the latest 3.10.x kernel.

The kmod option is the way to go whenever possible.

The source code that is not enabled in the RHEL kernel is not being
maintained (updated), so it might have bugs and security issues.
Fedora is a moving target and its kernel is much newer.

In addition, kmods can serve the whole EL community better. Switching
the kernel to the centosplus kernel may not be trivial if you are not
a CentOS user.

Of course this does not mean I am unwilling to enable it in the plus
kernel. I will do that if a request is made. Then people can have a
choice. :)

Akemi