> > Chad> .deb-installed headers from the /usr/include directory.
> >
> > Ans rightly so. Don't touch them. Ever.
> ^^^^^
> My question is what if one wants to upgrade the kernel
> from non-debian sources? Do we still use the old kernel
> headers from the deb-packages??. The "/usr/include" has
> been very confusing/conflicting and there is not enough
> documentation on this particular issue.
I'd say "Don't touch them. Ever." is a bit harsh. Feel free to touch
them if you know what you're doing. If you get your own kernel source
on the net, it's an excellent idea to make symlinks from
/usr/include/{linux|asm} to the proper directory provided by the
kernel source. Not doing so may (hopefully) cause a compile error,
and possibly (and unfortunately) cause some very-hard-to-trace runtime
error (although I have yet to see that...).
One warning about that, debian has a propensity to remove your
symlinks and create directories in /usr/include with the default
distribution. If you upgrade the kernel-headers package, yet still
want to compile your own kernel sources from the net, be sure to check
the status of /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm.
The directories were changed to their present status (as actual
directories instead of symlinks) to prevent unsuspecting users from
having errors no one else could reproduce. IMHO, it's not a bad
decision. But it's not the right one for everyone.
John
