On Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:12:02 -0400 (EDT), Angus Hedger wrote: > > The two things that i use k-headers for myself are the nvidia blob, > and the virtual-box km's > > The only issues I ran into when building headers via make-kpkg where as > follows, > > Make sure you use the same "-append-to-version -stuff-here" line as > you do when building your kernel, or they wont match up and it wont > find the k-headers. > > And, I have found that the packages made by make-kpkg are setting the > wrong "/lib/modules/<kernel version>/build" symlink, pointing it to my > the dir where i build the kernel rather than the correct > /usr/src/<kernel headers> dir. > > (I think i need to bug report the 2nd, but I don't know if its > something I am doing wrong).
I don't think that this is a bug. I think you're trying to mix and match two different ways of doing things. There are two basic ways of creating an out-of-kernel-source-tree module from source: (1) install the kernel headers and compile the out-of-kernel-source-tree module from source using the kernel headers, and (2) if you have the whole kernel source tree installed, compile using the kernel source. What you're doing is creating a kernel header package from the kernel source and then using method (1), when you should be using method (2). I spent the better part of the day today playing around with this. Perhaps the results of my experiment will prove instructive in some way. I have a computer, i386 architecture, which runs Debian Squeeze. It has an Nvidia video card with a RIVA TNT2 chipset. It currently runs a stock Debian kernel (linux-image-2.6.32-5-686, version 2.6.32-18) and it uses the nv driver for X (xserver-xorg-video-nv, version 1:2.1.17-3). I can't use the nouveau driver, unfortunately, because interlaced video modes do not work with the nouveau driver and my CRT monitor requires interlaced video modes to operate at its maximum resolution due to its low maximum pixel clock rate.) I decided to build a custom kernel and at the same time attempt to activate the proprietary nvidia driver. I really didn't need or want to do either one, but for the sake of making my kernel-building web page more useful, I decided to do this exercise. Here is what I did. The first step was to figure out which kernel source packages I needed. For the kernel source code, that was easy: linux-source-2.6.32. But for the nvidia kernel module source package, that took a little research. It turns out that for a video card with the RIVA TNT2 chipset, the correct answer is nvidia-kernel-legacy-71xx-source. I looked at the bug reports for the corresponding Debian source package, nvidia-graphics-drivers-legacy-71xx, and was disheartened. Bug number 543248 looked like it was going to be a show stopper. But for the sake of the academic exercise, I pressed on. The first problem is that nvidia-kernel-legacy-71xx-source exists only in Sid. And I run Squeeze. So I had to update some apt files. First, I edited /etc/apt/sources.list. ---------- $ cd /etc/apt $ su # cat sources.list deb ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/debian squeeze main non-free contrib deb-src ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/debian squeeze main non-free contrib deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main non-free contrib deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main non-free contrib # vi sources.list [editing commands not shown] # cat sources.list deb ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/debian squeeze main non-free contrib deb-src ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/debian squeeze main non-free contrib deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main non-free contrib deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main non-free contrib deb ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/debian sid main non-free contrib deb-src ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/debian sid main non-free contrib # ---------- As you can see, I added two lines to the end to define the sid release. But I only wanted packages from sid that I explicitly ask for. I didn't want a massive update. So I created a couple of extra files. I will simply show you their contents. ---------- # cat apt.conf APT::Default-Release "squeeze"; # cat preferences Package: * Pin: release a=sid Pin-Priority: 1 # ---------- Note: I've heard that synaptic does not respect these files, but I have no independent verification of that. aptitude and apt-get do honor it, however. Anyway, moving on ... ---------- # aptitude update [since sources.list, et al, were changed] # aptitude install linux-source-2.6.32 # aptitude -t sid -R install nvidia-kernel-legacy-71xx-source # aptitude install kernel-package fakeroot libncurses5-dev # exit $ cd /usr/src $ tar -xjf linux-source-2.6.32.tar.bz2 $ rm linux-source-2.6.32.tar.bz2 $ tar -xzf nvidia-kernel-legacy-71xx-source.tar.gz $ rm nvidia-kernel-legacy-71xx-source.tar.gz ---------- Note: the rm commands both give the following warning message: rm: remove write-protected regular file <file name>? That's because both the owner name and the group name for these files is root, and I'm issuing the rm command as a non-root user. But if I reply "y" to the prompts, it allows me to erase them anyway because my non-root user is a member of group src and src is the group owner of directory /usr/src and the group has both read and write privileges to the directory. Next I applied the patch from bug number 450653 (nested fakeroot problem). Now I was ready to build my custom kernel and the nvidia kernel module. ---------- $ cd linux-source-2.6.32 $ cp /boot/config-2.6.32-5-686 .config $ make menuconfig $ make-kpkg --append-to-version -custom5-686 --revision 2.6.32-18 \ --initrd --rootcmd fakeroot kernel_image modules_image $ cd .. $ su # dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.32-custom5-686_2.6.32-18_i386.deb # aptitude install nvidia-kernel-common # dpkg -i nvidia-kernel-legacy-71xx-2.6.32-custom5-686_71.86.13-1+2.6.32-18_i386.deb # dpkg-reconfigure linux-image-2.6.32-custom5-686 [not sure if needed, but ...] # shutdown -r now;exit ---------- The system shut down and booted the new custom kernel. Everything ran fine. I was able to load the nvidia kernel module with # insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-custom5-686/nvidia/nvidia.ko and I was able to issue # modinfo /lib/modules/2.6.32-custom5-686/nvidia/nvidia.ko and get meaningful output. No problem. Now for the moment of truth: ---------- # aptitude -t sid -R install nvidia-glx-legacy-71xx ---------- This step failed. The user-space piece was incompatible with the release of xorg installed on my squeeze system and wanted to de-install all of my xorg-* packages. (Bug number 543248, as feared.) So I was not actually able to use the nvidia driver. Maybe it would have worked with Lenny and a 2.6.26 kernel, but not with Squeeze and a 2.6.32 kernel. Now if I had a newer graphics card with a newer chipset that could have used at least the 96xx drivers, it probably would have worked. Nvidia hasn't updated the user-space 71xx legacy drivers to support newer releases of xorg. And Debian can't package what Nvidia doesn't write. Nevertheless, the kernel side of things appeared to work just fine. The moral of the story is that you don't need (or shouldn't need) kernel header packages if you have the whole kernel source code installed. Note that I didn't use module-assistant or kernel headers. -- .''`. Stephen Powell : :' : `. `'` `- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/514761510.99551.1281832151473.javamail.r...@md01.wow.synacor.com
