rpm for T1/E1 WAN card kernel modules

[vivir]

I have a PCI card:

lspci -n : 0200: 1011:0009 (rev 22)
lspci -vvx :
Ethernet controller: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21140 [FasterNet] (rev 22)
Subsystem: LMC Unknown device 0006
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 9
I/O ports at d000 [size=128]
Memory at e8201000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 48100000 [disabled] [size=256K]
00: 11 10 09 00 07 00 80 02 22 00 00 02 08 20 00 00
10: 01 d0 00 00 00 10 20 e8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
20: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 76 13 06 00
30: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 01 14 28

It is aT1/E1 WAN card originally manufactured by SBEI.
I want to use this card with fedora/rhel/centos, but the
provided kernel rpm does not have the required kernel
modules included.

I need from drivers/net/wan/*, hdlc, dlci, fr, syncppp, and
either the lmc drivers included or the out-of-tree sbc
driver (source code is marked GPL).

My preferred plan is to build a kmod or kmdl rpm(s) that
includes all the necessary modules. I realize that I'll have
to rebuild new rpm(s) for this card whenever new kernels
are released, but I think that's not too bad.
Is there a HOWTO that tells me how to build such a thing?
I don't have quite enough info from the things I've uncovered
so far:
<http://driverupdateprogram.com/>
<http://www.kerneldrivers.org/RedHatKernelModulePackages>
<http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Obsolete/KernelModules>

An alternate plan is to modify the kernel source rpm's .config
and recompile the entire kernel rpm. But I'd like to keep these
additional modules separate until/unless they are included
by redhat/fedora automatically. (BTW, how does one
go about requesting that sort of thing? These drivers have
been in the kernel sources for a long time; I think they're
stable.)

I have found a similar thread here:
<http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archive/index.php/t-64640.html>,
but it is 3 years old and I saw no replies.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[vivir]

Thanks to all who have at least read this thread.

I have made some progress using the instructions here

<http://orion.lcg.ufrj.br/~roma/LCG_kernel_modules.html>

to rebuild all the kernel modules, including the new ones I
need.

But, how do i create an rpm with only the modules I want?
From what I have learned so far in my rpm quest, I
need a spec file and source code to build an out-of-tree
kernel modules rpm, but in this case I'm using in-tree code.
Is there a clever way to build a binary rpm from
already compiled .ko files?
Can I create a tar.gz of the *.ko files and leave the build
section empty; just fill the install section with instuctions
about where to put the modules?
This doesn't seem quite legit.

[Dies]

Originally Posted by vivir

But, how do i create an rpm with only the modules I want?
From what I have learned so far in my rpm quest, I
need a spec file and source code to build an out-of-tree
kernel modules rpm, but in this case I'm using in-tree code.
Is there a clever way to build a binary rpm from
already compiled .ko files?
Can I create a tar.gz of the *.ko files and leave the build
section empty; just fill the install section with instuctions
about where to put the modules?
This doesn't seem quite legit.

It's not really "legit". But yes if you already have the files you can easily make an rpm by just specifying those files in the .spec, while technically it may not be the right way it will work just fine.

Easiest way if there aren't a lot of files would be to place them where they go then just list them in the .spec file, you can then delete them and install the rpm.

With the only advantage to just putting them there manually being that it's a listed package.

i.e.

Summary: Drivers
Name: Something
Version: < kernel version might be a good choice >
Release: 1
Group: System Environment/Kernel
License: GPL

%description

Anything you want

%files

Here you would list your files, one by one using the full path, if you just use a directory then the whole directory will get pulled in, which is probably a very bad idea.  :D

Though I have to say, seems to me that you should probably just compile a new kernel rpm and install that instead, if you're using other kmods you would need to leave the version stuff unchanged.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel

Also, not sure these clear anything up but..

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Obsolete/KernelModules

http://www.kerneldrivers.org/RedHatKernelModulePackages

[vivir]

Originally Posted by Dies

With the only advantage to just putting them there manually being that it's a listed package.

Ah, but that is exactly a feature I want.
I don't want to replace anything that I don't have to.
In fact, I am thinking now that I could pull a copy of the drivers/net/wan/
directory and then build the modules I want as if they were out-of-tree.
The trick in that case is to create a Makefile and .spec file for that purpose.
There are some links & examples of building out-of-tree drivers for a specific
kernel.

Originally Posted by Dies

Though I have to say, seems to me that you should probably just compile a new kernel rpm and install that instead, if you're using other kmods you would need to leave the version stuff unchanged.

No, see my comment above. I'd like to leave the distribution's kernel package alone,
and just add my supplemental rpm(s). Best case (for me) is for the distro to add the
missing modules to the distributed kernel rpms.

Originally Posted by Dies

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel

This is a very informative page, thanks for the link. The last
section could be the place to put the info I'm looking for,
when I get it all figured out.

Originally Posted by Dies

Also, not sure these clear anything up but..

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Obsolete/KernelModules

http://www.kerneldrivers.org/RedHatKernelModulePackages

yep, I already had these in my original post,
but it doesn't hurt to mention them again.