linux-4.18.0-372.9.1.el8 (inside tar file)
source code at : drivers/media/tuners/si2157.c (good)
check kernel rpm (that matches source rpm above)
rpm -ql kernel-modules-0:4.18.0-372.9.1.el8.x86_64
/lib/modules/4.18.0-372.9.1.el8.x86_64/kernel/drivers/media/tuners/si2157.ko.xz
file exists in rpm AND in filesystem (good)
Thanks for clarification that this was decided by RHEL, so Rocky is just following. It does mean I can’t use these modules directly, and foward maintenance is difficult, not being able to use dnf upgrade, and having to keep signing them over and over agiain (out of tree taints kernel etc).
I’m interested to know where the setting CONFIG_MEDIA_TUNER_SI2157 is set. e.g. is it only shown in the build tree at build time, or is there a way to see it on a running system?
Looking one level above, I notice the i2c driver is also missing. The headers and Kconfig are there, but the actual *.ko module file is missing. Here’s an example of the Makefile
less /usr/src/kernels/5.14.0-70.17.1.el9_0.x86_64/drivers/i2c/Makefile
I’m not sure how to use this Makefile. If I “install” the kernel source rpm, does it mean I can build the ‘i2c’ module using the installed infrastructure (in tree) as opposed to extracting the whole kernel to somewhere and trying to build it (out of tree)?
It’s been way over decade since I’ve compiled any kernel, so I can’t help with how it is done / how to get those modules.
ELRepo ELRepo | HomePage does build kernel modules for EL that Red Hat does not. You could request a driver there: My View - ELRepo Bugs
CentOS Kmods SIG CentOS Kmods SIG does too, but they don’t seem to have EL9 branch.
Note: Alma 9 beta had kernel version 5.14.0-70.5.1 and in that config tuners were included.
Interesting about Alma 9 setting different config.
Regarding “i2c” above, I had misunderstood it.
The module I was looking for is actually called ‘i2c_mux’, and it DOES exist in Rocky 9, but it’s strange, becuase it’s in ‘kernel-core’, not ‘kernel-modules’.
That was just in the beta; the official Alma 9.0 kernels have no tuners. I can’t tell whether that config did match CentOS Stream 9 or RHEL 9 beta of the time or not. Red Hat could have dropped stuff out at the last minute?
In the wider context, it would be good to get a definitive list of the drivers that exist in the RHEL kernel source rpms, but which have not been built.
It’s not as easy as looking at the boot config files because some CONFIG* entries are simply missing, they’re not always set to “no”.
It’s all a bit strange, because the headers for the modules are installed in the running system, and the matching srouce rpm has the source code, so it should be possible to run the Makefiles and somehow sign them using the Rocky key (as opposed to some other key). In other words, it should be possible to build the missing modules with a few commands from within the running system, but no one knows how yet.
I’m interested in it, because open source people have put a lot of work into these modules, and yet they can’t be used from within RHEL9.
I was wondering if this solution worked. I’m also trying to get a TV tuner to work with el9, and mine happens to need the em28xx driver (which is similarly part of the kernel but apparently not enabled in RHEL 9).
I am discussing the possibility of building this module with the ELRepo folks, but they noted that there are some underlying frameworks that are simply not enabled in the RHEL 9 kernel (and thus adding additional modules may not work):
[[phil@Build64R9](mailto:phil@Build64R9) boot]$ cat config-5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1.x86_64 | grep -i tv
# CONFIG_MEDIA_ANALOG_TV_SUPPORT is not set
# CONFIG_MEDIA_DIGITAL_TV_SUPPORT is not set
Were you able to get your tuner working with just the kmod-si2157 package?
Did you already supply the exact model of the card the way it connects, the components it uses to the elrepo people? Did you have it working on linux in the past, if so which exact driver files did it use, where did they come from, how did the modules get loaded e.g. after boot? Which module depended on which other module?
I did; I also provided some dmesg output from the adapter under Fedora 34 (which is what I believe RHEL 9 is based on). The adapter works well under F34, and it seems to work natively – it’s detected immediately upon plugging it in, the appropriate device files are automatically created, etc.
After discussing with the ELRepo folks, it sounds like the best option (if you’d like to stick with an el9 distro like Rocky or Alma) is to use their kernel-ml packages. There are other options (like rebuilding the distro kernel with the appropriate options and drivers enabled) but they’re not without their own drawbacks.