On Tuesday 13 November 2007, David Timms wrote: > Mitsuho Iizuka wrote: > > BTW, what is DKMS ? Direct Kernel .... ??? > > http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6896 > > > What differences are there between livna and freshrpm > > nvidia driver ? > > I haven't checked lately, but it used to be: > - livna format is a kmod rpm for a specific kernel version. > If the kernel changes, you need to wait for livna to publish > a new kmod suited only to the new kernel. They get to do the > compile, test release process. > > - freshrpms format is a dkms module rpm. Along with > requiring compiler tools and kernels headers installed, dkms > detects a change in kernel during system boot up, and > rebuilds the kernel interface to suit the new kernel. Mostly > this just works - maybe an extra 30 seconds to compile it > the first time you run a new kernel version. > > DaveT. Not sure if this is a good idea to compile the module at boot time. However, why not think about other idea: Fedora file system will have something like /lib/modules/aliens/<kmod-name> directory with all source and firmware binaries (if necessary) required to compile foreign non GPL modules (nvidia, vmware, etc.) for new kernel. Then, when new kernel is installed, yum/rpm will start a script to compile modules found in that tree using new kernel-devel tree. This is much safer and any incompatibilities could be resolved or logged before booting new kernel. Will it work? Serguei.
