[elrepo-devel] HOWTO on creating kmod packages?

[Alan Bartlett]

2009/12/3 David Ranch <elrepo at trinnet.net>:

> I'd like to learn how to create a kod / weak update package for the FTDI
> FT2232 USB serial interface.  Is there any offical documentation on how
> to do this?  Maybe a recommendation to use a specific SRPM as a
> template?    I see threads like the following but there doesn't seem to
> be anything official and current:
>
> http://www.linux-archive.org/centos-development/215406-kmod-packaging-guideline.html
>
>
> Specifically, I've already added three ID:PID entries to the .h file and
> compiled and loaded the resulting kernel module.  I'd now like to offer
> this new binary in a kABI-supported RPM package.
>
>
> Also, though I know this is a specific Centos-centric list, but can
> anyone comment if there is similar functionality for other distributions
> such as Debian/Ubuntu, SuSe, etc?  I'm trying to help out a poor
> hardware vendor in adding Linux support in a proper, supportable fashion
> cross multiple distributions.

Hi David,

At present we, at ELRepo, have not yet written up a generic guide to
the creation of kernel independent, kABI tracking, kmod packages. It
is something that is "on the list" to be done -- it's just a question
of finding the time to do so.

ELRepo is independent of all the Enterprise Linux distributions and,
as our site's home page explains, our packages are applicable to all
those distributions that do not customise the basic Enterprise Linux
kernel and so break from the ABI published for the standard kernel.
Currently our user base is from RHEL 5, CentOS 5 and Scientific Linux
5.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall providing a brief outline --
more a series of references -- to how we produce our kmod packages.
After a brief search of my archives, I find that I actually provided
that information in a private e-mail. Accordingly, I copy and paste
the relevant sections below.

[quote]
The technique we, at ELRepo, use to create kmod packages has been
developed from that published by Jon Masters (of Red Hat) in a
whitepaper [1]. Other relevant web-based pages to note are also listed
[2][3][4][5][6][7].
[/quote]

and

[quote]
[1] http://driverupdateprogram.com/presentations/DriverUpdateProgramTechnical.pdf
[2] http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/BuildingKernelModules#head-b86b6eec08d5719cf1838929f26a64af88e2b7f0
[3] http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/SetupRpmBuildEnvironment
[4] http://elrepo.org/tiki/Makefile
[5] http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmodtool
[6] http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmodspec
[7] http://docs.fedoraproject.org/drafts/rpm-guide-en/ch08s02.html
[/quote]

I hope this provides you with sufficient information to start with.
Please ask if there is anything further you would like clarifying.

Regards,
Alan.