[Gllug] kernel symbols

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Wed, Jan 18, 2006 at 05:25:31PM +0000, Ben Fitzgerald wrote:
> I have just got veritas foundation suite for redhat EL 3.
> 
> Q13520H_fst.lxrt2.2MP1.redhatlinux.tar.gz
> 
> I have installed two rpms:
> 
> [root at vxfstest rhel3_i686]# rpm -qa | grep VRT
> VRTSvlic-3.00-009
> VRTSvxfs-3.4.4-RHEL3
> 
> Unfortunately the module load of vxfs fails with "unresolved symbol".
> 
> Here is the output plus some useful info:

[snip]

> Hint: You are trying to load a module without a GPL compatible license
>       and it has unresolved symbols.  Contact the module supplier for
>             assistance, only they can help you.

Hint hint ;-P

> [root at vxfstest root]# uname -a
> Linux vxfstest 2.4.21-4.EL #1 Fri Oct 3 17:52:56 EDT 2003

This is an really very old kernel for RHEL-3, with numerous security flaws,
and plenty of nasty panic inducing bugs. IIRC Veritas didn't certify their 
drivers for this release of the kernel which could be why you have trouble
here. I think the update-5 kernel 2.4.21-32.0.1.EL was supported by them, 
and by now possibly update 6 too (-37.EL kernel)

> >From the release notes:
> 
>    The 3.4 Update 4 release is on the VERITAS Storage Solutions 2.2
>    Maintenance Pack 1 CD and operates on the following operating system:
>     *  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (AS, ES, WS)
> 
> Yet the kernel symbols for 2.4.21-4.EL do not match vertias' modules.

Since there is no guarenteed ABI across kernel updates, the symbols can
change between errata, so unless the modules are re-built against each
new errata release the symbol mismatches are a possiblity.

> Am I correct in thinking that kernel modules have symbols compiled in
> and these do not change once compiled. If so, how can I have the above
> mismatch? 

Most likely a version mismatch between the kernel you're running & the 
one the modules were built against.

Regards,
Dan.
-- 
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|=-   berrange at redhat.com  -  Daniel Berrange  -  dan at berrange.com    -=|
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