bcmwl-kernel-source 6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2: bcmwl kernel module failed to build [error: unknown type name ‘uint’]

[Cullen Maglothin]

Was uninstalling and gave an error.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: bcmwl-kernel-source 6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-11.31-generic 3.13.3
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-11-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.13.2-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
DKMSKernelVersion: 3.13.0-11-generic
Date: Fri Feb 21 10:19:07 2014
DuplicateSignature: dkms:bcmwl-kernel-source:6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2:/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.141+bdcom/build/src/include/bcmdefs.h:113:2: error: unknown type name ‘uint’
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-02-21 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64+mac (20140221)
PackageVersion: 6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2
SourcePackage: bcmwl
Title: bcmwl-kernel-source 6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2: bcmwl kernel module failed to build
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Mario Trams (mario-trams)]

I did not test this on other kernels (just 3.13.0-11-generic), but the problem probably came with the newer kernel.

This is looking like some wrong include order or something in that direction. I already made some experiments, but without success so far.

What might give some hint:

uint is defined in types.h, which resides here:
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-11-generic/include/linux/types.h

I strace'd the building process.
The strace indicates that the types.h above is never been accessed. Instead, it accesses
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-11-generic/include/uapi/linux/types.h

I've not really a glue about these things, but this seems not correct for me.

[Mario Trams (mario-trams)]

Update....

I made a mistake when I wrote that I "strace'd" the building process.
strace does not trace into spawned processes. What I saw was the regular compiler output.

Anyway, the result is the same.

While include/uapi/linux/types.h is being accessed, include/linux/types.h is not being accessed.
I verified the latter one by placing erroneous code at the very beginning of include/linux/types.h,
which should cause an according compilation error. It does not, so include/linux/types.h is not
evaluated at all.

I made more tests to compare the situation with the official Ubuntu 13.10. The same bcmwl version
is used here (6.30.223.141+bdcom). The kernel is 3.11.0-12.
The bcmwl compiles fine and is working fine as well.

The situation here is that the compilation process accesses both include/uapi/linux/types.h
and include/linux/types.h - verified with the same trick as above.

So we can conclude that one issue is that the according header file include/linux/types.h is not
read in - for whatever reason.

Though, it remains unclear whether this is the only problem, because there are following a lot
of other compilation errors following the missing uint definition. But maybe they are related somehow.

Ok, still no solution, but maybe somebody has got some idea.....

[JONNALAGADDA Srinivas (sigma-ml)]

I confirm what Mario Trams reported above.

[Mario Trams (mario-trams)]

Btw., fixing those unknown type names like uint etc. is rather trivial by just defining them within bcmwl-kernel-source.
However, that is not really solving the problem because there are other, more complicated things that cause a miscompilation. Meaning that there is something wrong in general.

Just for testing I also tried it with some other of the Trusty Tahr kernels, specifically 3.12.13, 3.13.5 and 3.14-rc4.
The problem persists with all of them.....

[Mario Trams (mario-trams)]

Some good news.....

I just tried the recent Trusty Tahr daily snapshot from 1st March 2014 (both 32bit and 64bit).
The bcmwl-kernel-source package compiles well and seems to work well too.

The question is: Why?

The bcmwl-kernel-source package is still the same 6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2.
The kernel is 3.13.0-14-generic.

Probably the reason is some other change independent from the bcmwl and the kernel......

[mlentink (martin-athenenoctua)]

Just instelled the nightly on a compaq mini 110c-1100sd and this happens in the installed version. The curious thing is that it did work in the live-usb. Additionally i tried the lubuntu trusty beta2 and the bug was in there too

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

Is this still a problem? I can't reproduce it in 14.04

[Mario Trams (mario-trams)]

As I wrote that time, my experience was that the problem disappeared in the mentioned snapshot.
So it did in the regular 14.04 release.

So I think that the problem is solved.
Though, the reason why it is solved seems unclear. But anyway....

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for bcmwl (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]