Why Red Hat driver version numbers do not match with the upstream numbers or with the 3rd party version numbers?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Issue

  • I would like to know which driver version shipped by Red Hat is the equivalent to the 3rd party version number.
  • How to know if a patch created from vendor is included in the Red Hat driver?
  • Why is Red Hat driver so behind in the releases of the drivers?

Resolution

  • Red Hat does not ship drivers in the same format as upstream. The version numbering scheme followed by upstream or 3rd party vendors does not necessarily apply to Red Hat's kernel driver versions. Red Hat pulls various patches from upstream and increments the version number on a totally different scheme than what may be reflected in the Linux kernel, and subsequently, in vendor's shipped versions of the drivers.
  • What would be more helpful is to identify a specific BUG or kernel commit and verify if Red Hat has already the fix in any of the in house driver versions.
  • If you are interested to know if a specific patch is included to any of our driver versions, you may open a support case and our technical support will help you further.
  • Note For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 and above, network drivers may begin reporting a version that matches the kernel version via ethtool. For more information on this, please refer to the knowledge-base article Some network driver versions changed in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4.

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