On 6/21/07, Troels Liebe Bentsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > I would like to propose the replacement of the current way of building > external modules with DKMS(Dynamic Kernel Module Support Framework). > > The current way things work, is that every kernel package needs to > build and maintain separate packages for out of tree modules/drivers > like ipw3945, madwifi, fglrx, etc. So every time the kernel is updated > new packages of the all the modules also needs to be rebuild(23 for > -suspend2). And when a new version of a module is released all the > individual packages for each kernel also needs to be updated. > > DKMS does away with this, DKMS is a shell script the helps in building > and maintaining out of tree kernel modules. By using DKMS and shipping > the source version of the module instead, DKMS can rebuild the module > every time the kernel is updated. So we only need to maintain one > package pr. module and it works with all the kernels with have in > arch. > > This also has the advantage of making it easier to build your own > kernel or provide another flavor on AUR. As driver/module updates and > rebuilds is no longer needed. It's also reduces the amount of packages > that the arch community has to maintain. > > What I have done so far is made DKMS modules for fglrx, ipw3945, > madwifi and virtualbox. When you install the dkms modules they will > automatically build and install a module for each kernel you have > installed. > > What is missing is a way to rebuild the modules when the kernel is > updated, but I'm not quite sure how to do this? Would > /etc/mkinitcpio.d/ be a good place to put it? > > What does people think of this idea? > > And would the maintainers of old packages be willing to adopt the new > DKMS packages? > > The packages can be found on AUR, search for dkms(how do I make a link > to a search?)
Had a look, it might be better if you put the dkms.conf in a seperate file, rather than having a huge cat statement. I think we decided that we'd implement multiple-packages-in-one where we could trim it down to building a package for each kernel, with only the single PKGBUILD. I guess we'll need to have a look at both. James -- iphitus // Arch Developer // iphitus.loudas.com _______________________________________________ arch mailing list [email protected] http://archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/arch
