CentOS7

[toracat]

I discovered that the srpm for the RHEL kernel actually contains the source code for the ath5k driver, it is just the config file that needed changing (make menuconfig after make oldconfig) at the kernel building point so that ATH5K is being built as a module.

A number of drivers have been removed (disabled) in EL7beta compared to EL6.5 as seen in this section of the Release Notes. ath5k is one of them. CentOS offers centosplus kernel which is a custom kernel with many features enabled and also bug fixes. The version for EL7 is under development. As you can see in the bug tracker (see the attachment), I have enabled the ath5k driver in the config file. More drivers will be added in due course.

So I'm now doing some more reading and trying to build just the .ko module to add that to the original kernel, and then trying to see if the dkms packages from an el6 repo will install and work.

dkms is one way to build just modules. Another is to use kmod. ELRepo offers kABI-tracking kmod packages. One of the advantages with this is that you do not need development tools on your system because there is no need to rebuild modules with each kernel update.

[keithpeter]

Glad to hear that the Centos 7 version of the centosplus kernel will have some of the drivers restored, that will help those with hardware new enough to run 64bit but old enough to need the older drivers.

My next self-educational move was to build the ath5k kmod rpm using the instructions on the wiki page that you pointed to. If I have read that section correctly, it looks like I may not need to build the full kernel first if working from a fresh install, which will keep this laptop a lot cooler!

[toracat]

You definitely do not need to build the whole kernel. ELRepo is of course aiming at providing kmods for EL7. It would be great if you could file a request for ath5k for .el7 at ELRepo bug tracker. I know there is no "el7" in the selection window at the moment. This will be adjusted real soon now.

[assen]

Glad to hear that the Centos 7 version of the centosplus kernel will have some of the drivers restored, that will help those with hardware new enough to run 64bit but old enough to need the older drivers.

Sounds like RH are going to reconsider, at lest partially, their momentary lapse of reason... now, if only one would volunteer to keep x86 builds around for a rock-solid and still easy to use desktop (because there is still a significant amount of enterprise-class UNIX software which is only available in x86).

[toracat]

... now, if only one would volunteer to keep x86 builds around for a rock-solid and still easy to use desktop (because there is still a significant amount of enterprise-class UNIX software which is only available in x86).

This is what Karanbir Singh has said about the i686 build [1]:

w.r.t the i686 build, I suspect we will need to do a complete tree for those anyway, there is far too much missing from the published 32bit tree to be able to build even the required multilib components.

[1] http://seven.centos.org/2014/01/a-bigge ... comment-31

[hector62]

Hello,
Is there somewhere a list of hardware supported by RHEL7 ?

I have a very old Dell D620 , I'll have to change the disc and re-install the system.
I can wait for the RH7 but if it is not compatible, I do it right away with centos 6.5 which works fine but a little old , or try with ubuntu

[keithpeter]

Hello,
Is there somewhere a list of hardware supported by RHEL7 ?

I have a very old Dell D620 , I'll have to change the disc and re-install the system.
I can wait for the RH7 but if it is not compatible, I do it right away with centos 6.5 which works fine but a little old , or try with ubuntu

Hello hector62

I'm no expert, but Google tells me these things...

https://access.redhat.com/site/document ... index.html

The Red Hat release notes for the RHEL Beta tell you what they are leaving out as regards kernel drivers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Latit ... itude_D620

If it is the later Merom processor, then it should run 64bit OS ok in my (limited) experience. The earlier Yonah won't (same processor as Thinkpad X60). RHEL7 is 64 bit only. CentOS developers may do a 32 bit version as a community project.

http://www.linlap.com/dell_latitude_d620

Looks like it is an Intel WiFi adaptor, ipw3945 driver, not mentioned in the removed drivers section of the RHEL7 release notes, so you should be OK.

There is mention of NVIDIA discrete graphics or intel integrated graphics. NVIDIA needs proprietary drivers for the full 3d accelerated desktop, which Gnome 3 uses.

Suggest you download a 64bit CentOS 6.5 live image and try that and see if it all works. A live image can work without a hard drive in the laptop. You could use the live image to find out what hardware you actually have on your particular laptop and post findings back here. Have a look at this CentOS Forum page to see how to get detailed information about your system

viewtopic.php?t=870

'Old' is a relative term (speaking as one who has nearly 60% of a century in the rear view mirror ). I find CentOS 6.5 with the EPEL and Nux Desktop repositories enabled very capable with full multimedia facilities.

Cheers

[TrevorH]

Going on the previous releases, it's likely to be about 6 months from first RHEL7 beta to GA product and the CentOS release could be further behind that too. That puts it at least 4 months away...

[hector62]

Thank you , keithpeter and TrevorH , for your response.
I shall try a live cd but I think , from reading RHEL7 docs, I will keep CentOS 6.5 for now

[Klaus69]

Hi,

i would like to use an old DL380 G5 for RHEL7. Is there any chance that this could work? All hardware i tried until now seems to be to old for RHEL 7.
Is the CentOsPlus Kernel an option? Any Hints how to integreat this for a clean new installation?