Novena-RF Driver, requirement to cross-compile kernel?

Projects Novena-RF
1

I’m bringing up my Novena-RF on a Novena running Linux 4.4.0, consequently the pre-compiled driver for Linux 3.19 in Github will not work. (insmod says “insmod: ERROR: could not insert module /home/roland/Novena-RF/driver/binary/novena_rf.ko: Invalid module format” and dmesg shows “novena_rf: disagrees about version of symbol module_layout”.)

The instructions in the wiki state “This is an out of tree kernel module, it requires a cross ARM toolchain and a build of the Linux kernel.”

I’m a little surprised by the need for a build of the kernel (isn’t this why linux-headers-* packages exist?), but really don’t understand the need for a cross-compiler. Is there some reason for not simply compiling natively on the Novena?

2

Guessing just that it would be faster on an Intel system.

Contributions are welcomed in the form of pull requests and let me know if you’d like a wiki login to document any improvements.

3

Thanks, will let you know how I go.