dkms module rpm and initrd

[Matt Domsch]

On Tue, Mar 13, 2007 at 04:29:58PM +0100, Sander Hoentjen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> not sure if this is the right place to ask, but here it goes:
> Can dkms be used for stuff that is needed in the initrd? I would like to
> build an rpm that i can install on several systems, that will
> automatically build required modules. The problem is that those modules
> are needed in the initrd, if they are not there the system will not boot
> (init not found). Is there still some solution possible?

There's a few solutions.

1)
With Fedora Core 6, RHEL5, and I believe SLES10, their kernels'
install scripts in %post will call /sbin/weak-modules (or wherever
suse puts it), which will make use of whatever DKMS has installed.
You need latest dkms (2.0.16) and to install your modules using that,
to make sure they go into the directories those kernels will look in
(it's different for each distro, but dkms knows that...)


2)
You can always 'dkms install' before rebooting into your new
kernel.

3)
We're working with Red Hat and SUSE to get a hook added to
/sbin/installkernel that will let DKMS get called at kernel install
time, so DKMS can do its work there. That isn't present yet, but
everyone agrees it's the right thing to do.

Thanks,
Matt

-- 
Matt Domsch
Software Architect
Dell Linux Solutions linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux
Linux on Dell mailing lists @ http://lists.us.dell.com