Backporting Linux Mainline Drivers
summary
Backports creates tarballs of current mainline Linux kernel drivers (about 700 modules, mainly WLAN/media/bluetooth) so they can build against older kernels down to 3.0. It uses the kernel config/build system (make defconfig, cross-compile), automated semantic-patch rewrites and added headers to adapt driver APIs, and produces modules-only (no in-kernel replacements), so roughly a hundred modules actually build on 3.0 while some drivers can’t be backported due to deep API/internal changes.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:35Outdated kernel challenges
- 4:05Backports goals
- 6:55Workflow automation
- 9:25Semantic patches
- 12:42Backporting limits
- 14:26Upstream vs backporting
- 15:31Q&A
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