"module is older than RHEL 6.2 ...applying fixups" messages in RHEL6.2

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2

Issue

  • "module is older than RHEL 6.2 ...applying fixups" messages in RHEL6.2

Resolution

The message comes from the following kernel code which is introduced in RHEL6.2

         * In order to protect KABI we must modify the values in
         * modules 6.1 or older that maybe loaded at this time.
         */

        if (!rhel) {
            /* modules older than 6.2 do not have .rheldata */
            printk(KERN_DEBUG
                   "%s module is older than RHEL 6.2 ... applying fixups\n",
                   me->name);
            fixup = 1;
        }

It is coming from following patch.

From: Prarit Bhargava <prarit@redhat.com>
        Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:43:07 -0400
        Subject: [x86] Fix module alt_instr KABI breakage
        Message-id: <1316522588-5698-2-git-send-email-prarit@redhat.com>
        Patchwork-id: 40717
        O-Subject: [RHEL6.2 PATCH BZ 737753 1/2 v2]: Fix module alt_instr KABI breakage
        Bugzilla: 737753
        RH-Acked-by: Don Zickus <dzickus@redhat.com>
        RH-Acked-by: Jes Sorensen <Jes.Sorensen@redhat.com>
        RH-Acked-by: Jason Baron <jbaron@redhat.com>
        RH-Acked-by: Kyle McMartin <kmcmartin@redhat.com>
[..]

        [v2]: The patch adds a new section to modules, .rheldata and initializes the
        data in the rheldata struct.  The code then checks for the .rheldata section
        because older modules will not have a .rheldata section and applies the
        one byte shift to the data in alt_instr.

It indicates a workaround is being used to be able to load a module that was built for/under an older kernel whose kernel ABI differs from that of current kernel. You might be using a module from an older kernel.

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