Handling Asynchronous Driver Updates on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and Beyond

Jon Masters

As the market for Enterprise Linux grows over time, so does the occasional need for System Administrators to deploy third party device drivers (and other Linux Kernel Modules) on their installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. Such updates add third party supplied features and support for newly available hardware between RHEL product updates.The Driver Update Program in RHEL5 is just one way in which Red Hat and the Linux community are working together to automate the process of third party driver delivery for Linux systems. This talk will provide an overview of the implementation of Driver Updates in the RHEL5 product and serve to delve a little deeper into the challenges ahead