Need more info on DKML

[Charles_Rose at Dell.com]

Chandan,

 

Thanks for your interest in DKMS.

 

* http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml#dkms would be a good place to
start. There are many documents that detail the framework there. The
DKMS man page also has these references.

 

* Hardware release cycles and Linux distribution release cycles seldom
align. One of the goals of DKMS is to provide support for a specific
piece of hardware on existing kernels until the driver becomes available
natively in a subsequent release of the kernel; at which time the DKMS
driver becomes dormant. This applies to any piece of code that can be
compiled as a module. In essence, you would not have to wait for a
stable kernel to be available to support that functionality.

 

* If you have Linux machines where you had to compile a driver module
manually to enable certain functionality, that would be a good place to
start. With the help of documentation available on the link above, you
can package the module as a DKMS RPM or Debian package, and then use
them on your Linux boxes instead of the older manual method. You could
then share this with a larger audience who could benefit from it.
Alternatively, you could help test pre-built DKMS packages on various
distributions. All Linux Drivers updates from Dell are created as DKMS
packages. http://support.dell.com would be a good place to start if you
have a Dell box that supports Linux. 

 

* DKMS packages can be built for one or kernels and might work with
variants of these kernels. You would need the kernel headers and a
c-compiler to enable dkms with its build process on the target box. The
host can be any Linux-based operating system with is rpm or deb based.

 

To get involved, you could start using DKMS packages that help you
manage your machines with ease and help your colleagues and friends when
they have queries. Reporting bugs to this list would help make DKMS more
robust. You could also attempt creating DKMS packages out of existing
kernel module updates and share them others.

 

Thanks,
Charles Rose

Linux Engineering

Dell Inc.



From: dkms-devel-bounces at dell.com [mailto:dkms-devel-bounces at dell.com]
On Behalf Of Chandan M C
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 5:35 PM
To: dkms-devel-Lists
Subject: Need more info on DKML

 

Hi,

 This is Chandan. I am working in Linux domain. I found some info on
DKML when I was googling. I need bit more info on this. The project idea
is pretty good.

* How is the framework structured.
* There is line mentioned that, "No need to wait until kernel release ,
what does this mean"
* If I want to test the  DKML, what should I do
* Is this for building Linux module out of box against any kernel
version. What can be the host system. I mean host Linux OS.

Please can you provide me the info on the above mentioned quieries, I am
interested in knowing more about this and also getting involved in this
project. Is there any way that I can involve in this project, I am
working in linux from past 3 years and good enough in shell scripting. 

Waiting for your kind reply

Thanks & Regards
Chandu



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