Backports not building configured drivers

Hi everyone,

I'm using backports 4.14 to build for a custom kernel 3.14. That kernel includes the RT2800 wifi driver, and if I configure backports with menuconfig to build a newer version of that driver it works perfectly. However, if I configure backports to build the RTL8821 driver, which my kernel otherwise does not include, the driver never gets built and backports shows it as not selected the next time I run menuconfig.

Is this expected behaviour? Is there something I can do to force this
driver to build?

Quoted 2 lines · Marlon Smith

Hi everyone,

Hi Marlon,

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I'm using backports 4.14 to build for a custom kernel 3.14.  That kernel includes the RT2800 wifi driver, and if I configure backports
with menuconfig to build a newer version of that driver it works perfectly.  However, if I configure backports to build the RTL8821 driver, which my kernel otherwise does not include, the driver never
gets built and backports shows it as not selected the next time I run
menuconfig.

Is this expected behaviour?  Is there something I can do to force this
driver to build?

This probably means that your 3.14 kernel doesn't have some of the dependencies needed by the RTL8821 driver from 4.14.  Check the list of
dependencies for the driver and make sure they are included in your 3.14 kernel.

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Luca.

Quoted 19 lines · Luca Coelho

Quoted 2 lines · Marlon Smith

Hi everyone,

Hi Marlon,

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I'm using backports 4.14 to build for a custom kernel 3.14.  That kernel includes the RT2800 wifi driver, and if I configure backports
with menuconfig to build a newer version of that driver it works perfectly.  However, if I configure backports to build the RTL8821 driver, which my kernel otherwise does not include, the driver never
gets built and backports shows it as not selected the next time I run
menuconfig.

Quoted 3 lines

Is this expected behaviour?  Is there something I can do to force this
driver to build?

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This probably means that your 3.14 kernel doesn't have some of the dependencies needed by the RTL8821 driver from 4.14.  Check the list of
dependencies for the driver and make sure they are included in your 3.14 kernel.

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Luca.

Hey Luca, thanks for the reply!  The requirements in the backports 4.14 menuconfig are listed as follows:

Depends on: WLAN [=y] && WLAN_VENDOR_REALTEK [=y] && RTL_CARDS [=m] && m && BP_MODULES [=y] && PCI [=y]

I can find the symbol WLAN_VENDOR_REALTEK in the backports 4.14 menuconfig but not in the 3.14 kernel's menuconfig.  Does this mean I can't use the driver with this kernel?
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Hey Luca, thanks for the reply! The requirements in the backports 4.14 menuconfig are listed as follows:

Depends on: WLAN [=y] && WLAN_VENDOR_REALTEK [=y] && RTL_CARDS [=m] && m && BP_MODULES [=y] && PCI [=y]

I can find the symbol WLAN_VENDOR_REALTEK in the backports 4.14 menuconfig but not in the 3.14 kernel's menuconfig. Does this mean I can't use the driver with this kernel?

Quoted 5 lines · Marlon Smith

Hey Luca, thanks for the reply!  The requirements in the backports 4.14
menuconfig are listed as follows:

Quoted 8 lines

Depends on: WLAN [=y] && WLAN_VENDOR_REALTEK [=y] && RTL_CARDS [=m] &&
m && BP_MODULES [=y] && PCI [=y]

I can find the symbol WLAN_VENDOR_REALTEK in the backports 4.14 menuconfig but not in the 3.14 kernel's menuconfig.  Does this mean I
can't use the driver with this kernel?

No, actually the symbol is enabled? See the [=y] above.

The above looks like it is actually enabled though, so something else must be going on?

johannes