Make: error: implicit declaration of functions (on 3.16 kernel versions)

[Pro Backup]

Situation: testing machine with multiple (developer/mainline) kernels installed

# uname -a
Linux ubuntu 3.13.0-35-generic #62-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 15 01:58:42 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
# apt-get install r8168-dkms
...
Building initial module for 3.16.0-999-generic
ERROR (dkms apport): kernel package linux-headers-3.16.0-999-generic is not supported
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.16.0-999-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build/make.log for more information.
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu4.2) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-999-generic

My guess is that when running newer not yet released kernels like 3.16.0-031600rc6 or mainline 3.16.0-999 that compiler warnings are treated as errors.

I hope the upsteam r8168 driver code will be fixed to remove any warnings, like:

# cat /var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build/make.log
DKMS make.log for r8168-8.037.00 for kernel 3.16.0-999-generic (x86_64)
Fri Aug 29 14:21:47 CEST 2014
make: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.16.0-999-generic'
  LD /var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build/built-in.o
  CC [M] /var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build/r8168_n.o
/var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build/r8168_n.c: In function 'rtl8168_init_one':
/var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build/r8168_n.c:17103:5: error: implicit declaration of function 'SET_ETHTOOL_OPS' [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
     SET_ETHTOOL_OPS(dev, &rtl8168_ethtool_ops);
     ^
/var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build/r8168_n.c: In function 'rtl8168_schedule_work':
/var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build/r8168_n.c:18674:5: error: implicit declaration of function 'PREPARE_DELAYED_WORK' [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
     PREPARE_DELAYED_WORK(&tp->task, task);
     ^
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[1]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build/r8168_n.o] Error 1
make: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/r8168/8.037.00/build] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.16.0-999-generic'

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Pro Backup (2010-s)]

The workaround to no longer error out the Make process is to comment the line:

     -Werror-implicit-function-declaration \

in file:

/usr/src/linux-headers-3.17.0-999-generic/Makefile

However that still does not built a module that runs with kernel 3.17:
insmod /lib/modules/3.17.0-999-generic/updates/dkms/r8618.ko
r8168: Unknown symbol PREPARE_DELAYED_WORK (err 0)
r8168: Unknown symbol SET_ETHTOOL_OPS (err 0)
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'r8168': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

[jose (o1485726)]

Related: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/r8168-dkms/+bug/1345548

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package r8168 - 8.039.00-1

---------------
r8168 (8.039.00-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * New upstream release 8.039.00 (2014-09-18).
    (Closes: #760980, #743399, #756183) (LP: #1363072)

 -- Andreas Beckmann <email address hidden> Sun, 28 Sep 2014 04:22:52 +0200