AlmaLinux 9.4 Beta Restores Support For Some Hardware Deprecated By RHEL

[andyprough]

Is there any Linux distribution that is not "ridiculously unserious"?

No, if any distro was truly ridiculously unserious then it could threaten Windows for world domination. You can't be really popular if your OS isn't specifically developed as a fertile breeding ground for the worst kinds of ransomeware.

[torsionbar28]

removing good old and mission critical tested hw support by removing PCI IDs? What ridiculously unserious Linux distribution is that even, ..?!?!?! Sad.

To be clear, Broadcom, the greedy bastards, are the ones who are requesting mpt3sas removed from the kernel, just like mpt2sas before it a couple years ago. Look at what they've done with VMware. All they know how to do, is to buy out reputable brands (LSI, VMware) and then run them into the ground through forced obsolescence and higher pricing. F-Broadcom.

[Noitatsidem]

I guess bit-for-bit identical went out the window.

it's been like that since redhat restricted access to their sources. Alma only tries to be ABI compatible with RHEL now.
Rocky is still trying to be bug for bug identical to RHEL though.

[Estranged1906]

If IBM doesn't watch out they'll create a situation where the best version of RHEL comes from someone else. Like how they lost control of the PC market to the clone makers in the 80s.

It's okay. If RHEL fails, the still have z/OS, IBM i, AIX and OS/2_ArcaOS in their operating system zoo.

[toves]

The actual announcement stated "The following device drivers were modified to re-add PCI IDs for hardware disabled in upstream". Maybe those drivers were deprecated in RHEL 8.x? it is unclear.
It would be clearer to state they have re-added support for hardware disabled in RHEL9.

The support was removed for some LSI SAS HBAs in RHEL8 (from mpt3sas.) I had to install the driver from elrepo to get my small test array working after upgrading to EL8 from EL7.
The RH mpt3sas.ko spits a message about your HBA being unsupported and ignores the HBA.
I guess Alma builds these kernel modules with the unsupported pci ids un-commented out.
A PITA from RH. I can understand when you certify your OS against hardware that dropping old, largely non-production hardware from your certified hardware list makes sense. But making the drivers available through a legacy/uncertified/unsupported hardware stream to keep legacy hardware running for as long as there is upstream support (retaining the RH unsupported message) would also make sense.
I thought I would have to either build a custom kernel from the RH sources or a custom mpt3sas kmod which is more of an irritation than anything else.

[cjcox]

I can understand when you certify your OS against hardware that dropping old, largely non-production hardware from your certified hardware list makes sense. But making the drivers available through a legacy/uncertified/unsupported hardware stream to keep legacy hardware running for as long as there is upstream support (retaining the RH unsupported message) would also make sense.
I thought I would have to either build a custom kernel from the RH sources or a custom mpt3sas kmod which is more of an irritation than anything else.

Yes, the ids in this case are used in enterprise gear from Dell and HP and many others. IMHO, Red Hat made a "mistake" and I expect they will rescind. (my guess)