fails to build against 4.15.0.24-generic [error: implicit declaration of function ‘init_timer’]

[Johann Haarhoff]

Kernel updated to 4.15 last night. bcmwl-kernel-source dkms fails to build against it:

Looks like something changed on the kernel-side.

contents of /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/make.log

DKMS make.log for bcmwl-6.30.223.271+bdcom for kernel 4.15.0-24-generic (x86_64)
Tue Jul 3 10:03:18 SAST 2018
make: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-4.15.0-24-generic'
Makefile:976: "Cannot use CONFIG_STACK_VALIDATION=y, please install libelf-dev, libelf-devel or elfutils-libelf-devel"
CFG80211 API is prefered for this kernel version
Using CFG80211 API
  CC [M] /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.o
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.c: In function ‘osl_os_get_image_block’:
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.c:1083:26: warning: passing argument 2 of ‘kernel_read’ makes pointer from integer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]
  rdlen = kernel_read(fp, fp->f_pos, buf, len);
                          ^
In file included from ./include/linux/huge_mm.h:7:0,
                 from ./include/linux/mm.h:463,
                 from /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/include/linuxver.h:65,
                 from /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.c:25:
./include/linux/fs.h:2858:16: note: expected ‘void *’ but argument is of type ‘loff_t {aka long long int}’
 extern ssize_t kernel_read(struct file *, void *, size_t, loff_t *);
                ^
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.c:1083:37: warning: passing argument 3 of ‘kernel_read’ makes integer from pointer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]
  rdlen = kernel_read(fp, fp->f_pos, buf, len);
                                     ^
In file included from ./include/linux/huge_mm.h:7:0,
                 from ./include/linux/mm.h:463,
                 from /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/include/linuxver.h:65,
                 from /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.c:25:
./include/linux/fs.h:2858:16: note: expected ‘size_t {aka long unsigned int}’ but argument is of type ‘char *’
 extern ssize_t kernel_read(struct file *, void *, size_t, loff_t *);
                ^
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.c:1083:42: warning: passing argument 4 of ‘kernel_read’ makes pointer from integer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]
  rdlen = kernel_read(fp, fp->f_pos, buf, len);
                                          ^
In file included from ./include/linux/huge_mm.h:7:0,
                 from ./include/linux/mm.h:463,
                 from /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/include/linuxver.h:65,
                 from /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.c:25:
./include/linux/fs.h:2858:16: note: expected ‘loff_t * {aka long long int *}’ but argument is of type ‘int’
 extern ssize_t kernel_read(struct file *, void *, size_t, loff_t *);
                ^
  CC [M] /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.o
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c: In function ‘wl_init_timer’:
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c:2359:2: error: implicit declaration of function ‘init_timer’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
  init_timer(&t->timer);
  ^
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c:2360:10: error: ‘struct timer_list’ has no member named ‘data’
  t->timer.data = (ulong) t;
          ^
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c:2361:20: error: assignment from incompatible pointer type [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
  t->timer.function = wl_timer;
                    ^
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
scripts/Makefile.build:332: recipe for target '/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.o' failed
make[1]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build/src/wl/sys/wl_linux.o] Error 1
Makefile:1552: recipe for target '_module_/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build' failed
make: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.271+bdcom/build] Error 2
make: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-4.15.0-24-generic'

[JenyaKh (jenyakh)]

The solution is proposed here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/1778097

[Johann Haarhoff (johann-haarhoff)]

@JenyaKh That worked for me, thanks for the hint. Do you know how we can get the updated bcmwl driver queued up so apt upgrade does the right thing?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 1757008, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.