Re: Comment regarding kernel version

[Josh Huber <huber@debian.org>]

Laurent de Segur <ldesegur@mac.com> writes:

> I noticed that after installing either 2.2, either 2.4 pre-built
> kernel binary package, I end up getting a kernel version with an
> appended string (either -pmac, either -powerpc.) If I write a driver
> for this installed kernel, should I change the version in the header
> version.h by appending the string manually? If I don't and version
> dependency is use (automatically), the module won't load on kernels
> that folks build themselves (I know, I tried.)

No you shouldn't change the version string.  Build the module against
the kernel source that you intend to use it with.
-I/usr/src/linuxppc_2_4 (or whatever) when you're building should do
the trick.

> What should I do if I still want to have version dependency turned
> on?  Any reason why this string is present in the version string (it
> can't be even guaranteed that it will be the same in future
> versions.) Having the cpu inside the version looks redundant to me
> since I get the package from the platform directory already.

Well, to put it simply, kernel modules are dependant on the kernel
version that they were built for.  So, you need to distribute source
to your module if you want other people to use it.  (or, distribute
modules with a kernel to go along with them...)

ttyl,

-- 
Josh Huber                                   | huber@debian.org |