On 17 Mar 2000, Oleg Polyanski wrote:

>         So why  not  introduce LKM  versioning scheme  that  by default  will
>         prevent  from loading  LKMs  with incompatible kernel  interface? And
>         extend `modload' functionality,  for  example, with `-f'  option that
>         will force loading on your own risk.. I think it would greatly reduce
>         amount of unexpected kernel crashes.

Well, the thought until now has been that if you use lkm's, you need to
know what you're doing.

Changing the lkm interface to have some sort of kernel version code
encoded in the lkm would not be hard. Just no one's been interested in it.

>         But I see the problem here: how will different LKMs co-exist. I think
>         they  should  co-exists because software  vendors can  not follow the
>         kernel development and update their code  so fast. Something like LKM
>         wrapper would be  a solution.  For example, OSS  has such wrapper for
>         Linux sound drivers due to Linux interfaces change rapidly.

I gather you meant different LKM versions? Different LKM's co-exist fine.
:-)

What you're wanting to do is to let an LKM work with a kernel version it
was not designed for. That is, in general, not an easy thing to do.

Take care,

Bill