Antonio, Part of the dkms installation is /etc/init.d/dkms_autoinstaller . On bootup it assesses whether a new kernel has been installed. If so, it references a list dkms adapted driver source packages on the host System. Then it builds and installs all needed drivers. The only additional requirement is that the linux-headers or configured linux-source needed for compiling support has been installed. Read the attached for more detail. MarvS On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 10:52 PM, Antonio Olivares <olivares14031@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Marv, > > I am taking a look at dkms package(s) from Fedora Project. I will > need to investigate it a little more. > > I visited the following pages: > > https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/packages/name/dkms > > http://cvs.fedoraproject.org/viewvc/rpms/dkms/F-10/?hideattic=0 > > http://cvs.fedoraproject.org/viewvc/rpms/dkms/F-10/sources?view=log&pathrev=dkms-2_0_21_1-2_fc10 > > and Koji page: > > http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=98059 > > Questions, if I install dkms rpm, how can I use it to build slmodemd > package in case I install a new kernel? This is new stuff to me. Are > there any howto's available so I can try to learn from this? > > BTW, > In case I install a new kernel from source old fashioned way and no > rpm, then I will have to manually install the packages the traditional > way. > > Thanks, > > Antonio >
README.dkms Version 1.1 2/4/2004 This intention of this README is to explain how a DKMS enabled module RPM functions and also how DKMS can be used in conjunction with tarballs which contain a dkms.conf file within them. The DKMS project (and any updates) can be found at: http://linux.dell.com/dkms/ Table of Contents 0. Installation of DKMS via RPM 1. Installation via RPM 2. Installation via DKMS Tarballs 3. Installation on Systems with no Module Source and/or Compiler 4. Further Documentation ############################### 0. Installation of DKMS via RPM ############################### To install DKMS itself, you simply install (or upgrade) it like any other RPM: rpm -Uvh dkms-<version>-<release>.noarch.rpm This is a prerequisite to installing DKMS-enabled module RPMs. ####################### 1. Installation via RPM ####################### To install a DKMS enabled module RPM, you simply install it like any other RPM: rpm -ivh <module>-<version>-<rpmversion>.noarch.rpm With a DKMS enabled module RPM, most of the installation work done by the RPM is actually handed off to DKMS within the RPM. Generally it does the following: a. Installs module source into /usr/src/<module>-<moduleversion>/ b. Places a dkms.conf file into /usr/src/<module>-<moduleversion>/ c. Runs: dkms add -m <module> -v <version> d. Runs: dkms build -m <module> -v <version> e. Runs: dkms install -m <module> -v <version> Once the RPM installation is complete, you can use DKMS to understand which module and which moduleversion is installed on which kernels. This can be accomplished via the command: dkms status From here, you can then use the various DKMS commands (eg. add, build, install, uninstall) to load that module onto other kernels. ################################## 2. Installation via DKMS Tarballs ################################## DKMS is not limited to installation via RPM only. In fact, DKMS can also install directly from the following: a. Generic module source tarballs which contain a dkms.conf file b. Specially created DKMS tarballs with module source, pre-built module binaries and a dkms.conf file c. Specially created DKMS tarballs with pre-built module binaries and a dkms.conf file d. Manual placement of module source and dkms.conf file into /usr/src/<module>-<moduleversion>/ directory In order to load any tarball into the DKMS tree, you must use the following command: dkms ldtarball --archive=/path/to/dkms_enabled.tar.gz This command will first inspect the tarball to ensure that it contains a dkms.conf configuration file for that module. If it cannot find this file anywhere within the archive, then the ldtarball will fail. From here, it will place the source in the tarball into /usr/src/<module>- <moduleversion>/. If source already exists in the directory, it will not overwrite it unless the --force option is specified. If the tarball is of type "c" above and does not contain source, it will only continue to load the tarball if existing module source is found in /usr/src/<module>-<moduleversion>/ or if the --force option is specified. Continuing on, if the tarball is of type "b" or "c" it will then load any pre-built binaries found within the tarball into the dkms tree, but will stop short of installing them. Thus, all pre-built binaries will then be of in the "built" state when checked from the `dkms status` command. You can then use the `dkms install` command to install any of these binaries. To create a tarball of type "a" above, you need only to take module source and a dkms.conf file for that module and create a tarball from them. Tarballs of type "b" or type "c" are created with the `dkms mktarball` command. To create a type "c" tarball, you must specify the flag --binaries-only with the mktarball. ################################################################ 3. Installation on Systems with no Module Source and/or Compiler ################################################################ If you choose not to load module source on your system or if you choose not to load a compiler such as gcc onto your system, DKMS can still be used to install modules. It does this through use of DKMS binary only tarballs as explained in section 2 of this README under tarballs of type "c". If your system does not have module source, loading the dkms tarball will fail because of this. To avoid this, use the --force flag, as such: dkms ldtarball --archive=/path/to/dkms_enabled.tar.gz --force This will load the pre-built binaries into the dkms tree, and create the directory /usr/src/<module>-<moduleversion>/ which will only contain the module's dkms.conf configuration file. Once the tarball is loaded, you can then use `dkms install` to install any of the pre-built modules. Of course, since module source will not be located in your dkms tree, you will not be able to build any modules with DKMS for this package. ######################## 4. Further Documentation ######################## Once DKMS is installed, you can reference its man page for further information on different DKMS options and also to understand the formatting of a module's dkms.conf configuration file. You may also wish to join the dkms-devel public mailing-list at http://lists.us.dell.com/. The DKMS project is located at: http://linux.dell.com/dkms/
