On Fri, Aug 18, 2000 at 02:14:06PM -0400, Dave Bresson wrote > On Fri, 18 Aug 2000, David Wright wrote: > > > > > a) If you're compiling a kernel module, you need kernel headers. > > When people write /usr/src/linux, they really mean "the kernel headers > > for the running kernel". > > > Okay, i *do* have the kernel headers in /usr/src, > (/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.2.17/include) however, i have > /usr/src/linux linked to the kernel source in > /usr/src/kernel-source-2.2.17. What's the difference between the > kernel-header > include/ and the kernel-source include/ ? > > > And, also, before i untar'ed the entire kernel-source package into > /usr/src, the /usr/src/ directory only contained the kernel headers and i > tried compiling the 3c90x driver module using the those headers. I was > able to get a good compile, however, i still got the stupid version > problem when trying to do a 'insmod 3c90x'. The error it gives is > basically that the module was compiled for kernel 2.2.17 (the version > given in /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.2.17/include/linux/version.h) and that > it could not install the module since the running kernel was 2.2.17-ide. > I know i could force the insmod with the -f option, however, i would like > a better solution. I mean, the running kernel is *still* a 2.2.17 kernel > + the dma66 stuff, so shouldn't the version for it still be 2.2.17? After > all, i'm sure the stock 2.2.17 kernel and the 2.2.17-ide kernel came from > the same source. How do i solve this? > > > > > > b) The kernel-source tarball/debian package is installed into > > /usr/src as it's "owned" by Debian. However, Debian practice is > > to unpack it wheresoever you like. When you compile it, the > > Makefile's TOPDIR looks after all the path adjustments. > > That way you can have multiple versions around, and can build > > everything as an ordinary user with fakeroot. > > > > Ah, right, thanks for the info. So, when compiling programs, alot of them > need to know where to get the includes and they usually want to get them > at /usr/src/linux/include, am i to assume that i *should* be sym linking > /usr/src/linux to the kernel headers i have in > /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.2.17? That makes sense i guess. >
Actually, no. Applications that link against kernel headers usually do so because they need to share datatypes and other declarations with the C library; the important thing there is that they use the same version of kernel headers as was used to build the C library. In the days when most people built their own C library this wasn't a big issue, but it is more of one now. For the views of LT himself on this, search the linux-kernel archives for /usr/include/linux; the short version is that he considers symlinking /usr/include/linux into /usr/src/linux wrong, and building the kernel as root or in /usr/src as, at best, unnecessary. The way that Debian handles this is to place linux headers at /usr/include/linux in the libc6-dev package. There are times (like building stuff that really does talk to the kernel, not the C library) when you may have to massage things a bit, but it's really not up to Debian to predict and deal with the idiosyncrasies of individual pieces of third-party software. In your particular case, you could try editing version.h to contain whatever version the running kernel thinks it is. John P. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.mdt.net.au/~john Debian Linux admin & support:technical services
