Regis, Thanks for taking the time to let us know that you are listening.
*- On 19 Aug, Regis Duchesne wrote about "VMware on debian: module compilation" > I'm the only software engineer here at VMware who uses (and has been using > for 3 years) Debian. If VMware installs fine on Debian (although this > isn't mentionned anywhere, because people here think you are not "that > big a distribution"), you can thank me. Corel thinks we are. (http://linux.corel.com/news/august_10_1999.htm) ZDNet thinks we are. (http://www.zdnet.com/swlib/specials/linux/linuxlist.html) > > Now let's try to solve this issue peacefully: > > There is only one thing I dislike with Debian: When an upgrade of the > libc package destroys my links to kernel headers in /usr/include. > > However, if somebody takes the time to explain me once for all why > this is the way we do it (and why other distributions don't do it that > way), I'm ready to fix the vmware installation process so that modules > can build correctly even when users run a customized kernel. > I can only point you to documentation that explains the reasons for Debian's choice. The first is probably the most concise and can be found in the the kernel-package package in /usr/lib/kernel-package/README.headers(it was also posted to debian-user on May 15, 1998 and can be found at http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-user-9805/msg01174.html, the second is a more terse version and is in /usr/doc/libc6/FAQ.Debian.gz. > In short, is it guaranteed to find the running kernel headers in > ^^^^^^^ > /usr/src/linux/include on a Debian system? > ^^^^^ > No. > Is there something about kernel headers in the Linux File System > standard? > Unfortunately the FHS does says that the kernel headers should be symlinked from /usr/include/{linux,asm}. See http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.0/fhs-6.1.5.html. The current Debian policy does not have an exception to this so they are in conflict with the FHS on this. I started a discussion on debian-policy on this, primarily fueled by trying to build vmware modules. The start of the thread is at http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-policy-9907/msg00117.html. My personal preference for vmwares handling of the kernel headers would be to assume the default of /usr/include/linux and then ask the user during the setup where the headers are. Much like the $default_initdir setup in the install.pl script. An environment variable can be exported to the shell that extracts and compiles the modules. Then make can use this to define the location of the kernel headers in the Makefile. The Makefile specification of the kernel header locations can easily be handled by variable replacements as opposed to hard coded directories. This would even be useful to build the modules for kernels that are not currently installed and running but may be in use at a later time. -- Brian --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mechanical Engineering [EMAIL PROTECTED] Purdue University http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/~servis ---------------------------------------------------------------------
