Describe the bug

The NVMe-oF node plugin refuses DH-CHAP volumes based on the kernel version string (uname -r < 6.0.0), introduced in PR #6301. Distro kernels that backport NVMe in-band authentication (e.g. RHEL 9.8, 5.14.0-687.x) report a version older than 6.0.0 but fully support DH-CHAP. On such nodes NodeStageVolume fails with DH-CHAP requires kernel v6.0.0 or newer even though DH-CHAP works.

Environment details

• Image/version of Ceph CSI driver : ODF Ceph CSI 4.23 (nvmeof node plugin, includes PR nvmeof: gate DH-CHAP on kernel support #6301)
• Helm chart version : N/A (deployed via Rook / ODF)
• Kernel version : 5.14.0-687.42.1.el9_8.x86_64 (RHEL 9.8, worker node m-3)
• Mounter used for mounting PVC (for cephFS its fuse or kernel. for rbd its
  krbd or rbd-nbd) : N/A (NVMe-oF)
• Kubernetes cluster version : v1.36.3 (OpenShift)
• Ceph cluster version : N/A

Steps to reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Setup details: OpenShift nodes running RHEL 9.8 (kernel 5.14.0-687.x), NVMe-oF gateway, StorageClass with dhchapMode: "unidirectional".
2. Deployment to trigger the issue: create a PVC (volumeMode: Block) from that StorageClass and a pod using it.
3. See error: pod stays in ContainerCreating, NodeStageVolume fails.

Actual results

NodeStageVolume returns:

rpc error: code = InvalidArgument desc = DH-CHAP requires kernel v6.0.0 or newer, running on 5.14.0-687.42.1.el9_8.x86_64

The pod was stuck for 2 days.

The node does support DH-CHAP:

• nvme_auth is loaded and used by nvme_core (lsmod)
• manual nvme connect --dhchap-secret ... from the node plugin container succeeds (connecting to device: nvme1)
• the gateway shows Uses DHCHAP: Yes for the host NQN

Expected behavior

The driver should not gate DH-CHAP on the kernel version number. It should attempt the connect and return the real nvme connect error if the kernel does not support DH-CHAP.

Logs

• csi-nvmeofplugin and driver-registrar logs from the node plugin pod on m-3 (openshift-storage.nvmeof.csi.ceph.com-nodeplugin-w62tg).

Additional context

Caused by PR #6301 (nvmeof: gate DH-CHAP on kernel support), which checks only the kernel version, based on the upstream in-band authentication commit (torvalds/linux@88b140fe). Vendor kernels that backport features break this check.