Where can we safely add kernel drivers so they are retained after an update/upgrade

[brucoder]

For my systems, I need to use ATTO's ExpressSAS H12 series SAS HBAs, I can build and add the drivers from ATTO's site, and they work perfectly. However, I did this via the "admin" user account and installed the two resulting .ko files into /lib/modules/KERNELVER/extra/. When I installed the latest update from Apr 11, both the build environment that I had created in /home/admin and the driver files installed were removed.

I can understand that using a local user aside from "admin" for the build environment will protect the build environment, but where can I install the KMOD-compatible drivers so they are not removed by an update?

Thanks,
Tim

 

[jgreco]

where can I install the KMOD-compatible drivers so they are not removed by an update?

You cannot. TrueNAS is an appliance OS and is not designed for this sort of tinkering. Updates are sent as a complete filesystem image, and are designed to overwrite all files in order to provide a consistent appliance operating system that is expected to work correctly after any update. Your adding what is essentially "random crap" to your NAS interferes with this process, and is not supported. You would be better off to use an officially supported HBA and to sell the ATTO.

Your only option here would be to ask for these drivers to be included as part of TrueNAS; you can use "Report a Bug" up top to do so. I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope, as there are often licensing reasons that companies do not put their drivers for general distribution with FreeBSD and Linux, and such licensing limitations would prevent iXsystems from distributing it either.

 

[brucoder]

Thank you for verifying my findings.