Unsupported kernel modules in SLES11

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Situation

All supported Linux kernel modules (modules shipped with SLES) contain an internal "supported" flag which denotes that module as being officially supported by SUSE. Beginning with SLES 11, 3rd party modules that do not contain this flag are prevented from being loaded (automatically or manually) by the modprobe command. This is the default configuration of SLES11 servers, but loading unsupported modules can be allowed through one configuration change.

Resolution

To allow the loading of unsupported 3rd party modules in SLES11, set 'allow_unsupported_modules 1' in /etc/modprobe.d/unsupported-modules. After making this change, modules missing the "supported" flag, will be allowed to load.

Note - If these unsupported modules are being loaded in the initrd, the initrd should be rebuilt using `mkinitrd` after making this change.

Additional Information

Loading unsupported modules results in the Linux kernel being tainted. Due to these unsupported modules sharing kernel space, servers in this state may not be fully supported by SUSE. More information on tainted kernels can found in TID# 000016321 Tainted kernel

Section 9.4 of the SLES 11 README also contains more information on this new feature of SLES 11.

Disclaimer

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