should build kernel modules with dkms

[Craig]

Binary package hint: open-vm-tools

dkms will allow the kernel modules to be automagically recompiled when a new kernel is installed, which is incredibly handy.

Right now, there's a many step process required (get the source, compile the source, install the modules) every time the kernel is upgraded.

[Adar Dembo (adar-deactivatedaccount)]

The new upstream open-vm-tools release (2008.11.18) now provides dkms.conf which should allow for easy dkms integration. Could someone more familiar with dkms give this a shot?

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

With open-vm-tools the way it is now, if a kernel upgrade is performed (as happens often with security upgrades), and you forget to re-compile open-vm-sources, at next boot the system will have some major issues (like networking doesn't come up). With automated security installs (like I use), this means that whenever a reboot happens, there's a decent chance the system won't come up. I think it would be worth while to make DKMS work in this package to prevent these issues - I bet a lot of sysadmin would love you for it :-)

[Daniel Baumann (daniel-debian-org)]

Launchpad Bug Tracker wrote:
> You have been subscribed to a public bug by Craig (candrews-integralblue):

read this:
http://people.debian.org/~daniel/documents/ubuntu.html

do *never* subscribe people to something without their prior consent.

--
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Email: <email address hidden>
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[Greek Ordono (grexk)]

Can anyone can test this on hardy(https://launchpad.net/~grexk/+archive/ppa/+files/open-vm-dkms_2009.03.18-154848-2~ppa3_all.deb)?

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

I do not have Hardy around any more. If you make a Jaunty or Karmic version, I'll test it so fast it'll make your head spin :-)

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

I'm attaching a patch I made by taking all of grexk's patches (ppa1 through ppa3) from his ppa and porting them to the latest version of open-vm-tools in karmic (which is version 2009.05.22-167859-3). Here's to hoping this patch is acceptable for karmic!

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

I'm attaching a patch I made by taking all of grexk's patches (ppa1 through ppa3) from his ppa and porting them to the latest version of open-vm-tools in karmic (which is version 2009.05.22-167859-3). Here's to hoping this patch is acceptable for karmic!

[Greek Ordono (grexk)]

Sorry for the late reply, Can you check if this going to work well with karmic(https://launchpad.net/~grexk/+archive/ubuntu-dev/+files/open-vm-tools-dbg_2009.05.22-167859-3~ppa2.1_i386.deb). Check also my ppa for updates.

[Greek Ordono (grexk)]

dkms is not possible with open-vm-tools-2009-04-23 to latest version until fixed upstream.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

"dkms is not possible with open-vm-tools-2009-04-23 to latest version until fixed upstream."

Did you fix this in your ppa version at https://launchpad.net/~grexk/+archive/ubuntu-dev ? If not... this won't work on Karmic anyway, right?

Also, I only have access to karmic systems running amd64, and right now, your version of open-vm-tools fails to build on amd64. https://launchpad.net/~grexk/+archive/ubuntu-dev/+build/1083732/+files/buildlog_ubuntu-karmic-amd64.open-vm-tools_2009.05.22-167859-3~ppa2.1_FAILEDTOBUILD.txt.gz

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

I got your ppa2.1 from https://launchpad.net/~grexk/+archive/ubuntu-dev to build on Intrepid by removing the dependency on liburiparser-dev from debian/control, and adding "--disable-unity" to the configure line in debian/rules on line 108. (Would I be asking too much if I requested an Intrepid version in your ppa? :-) )

I then used dpkg to install the resulting open-vm-dkms_2009.05.22-167859-3~ppa2.1_all.deb and ended up with the attached errors when dkms attempted to compile the modules.

[Greek Ordono (grexk)]

check my ppa for working open-vm-dkms but I'm still working out the amd64 version.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

Mr Ordono, thanks for this great work!

I just compiling the package myself, and noticed two interesting warnings:

1) checking for notify_init in -lnotify... no
configure: WARNING: libnotify not found; notification disabled

Should a build dependency on libnotify-dev be added?

2) dpkg-gencontrol: warning: unknown substitution variable ${misc:Depends}
dpkg-gencontrol: warning: unknown substitution variable ${misc:Depends}

3) On karmic, the package compiles and works great!

4) On jaunty, if the dependency on liburiparser-dev is dropped and "--disable-unity" is added to the configure line, the packages and works great!

I can't wait until the amd64 situation is resolved. I'm quite psyched :-) Thanks again

[Greek Ordono (grexk)]

amd64 is now available. can you please check if dkms version will build perfectly in amd64.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

I only have access to an amd64 Jaunty machine at the moment, and I just did the --disable-unity trick and the package compiled and I installed the resulting open-vm-dkms_2009.06.18-172495-0~ppa1_all.deb. Works perfectly!

Are you authorized to push this package to Karmic, or do you need to seek a sponsor?

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

I just installed open-vm-dkms_2009.06.18-172495-0~ppa1_all.deb on a server. The vmware server said that the tools were not running, so I checked ps, and sure enough, vmtoolsd was not running.

I ran "strace vmtoolsd" and this is the end of the output:
stat64("/etc/vmware-tools/tools.conf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
open("/etc/vmware-tools/tools.conf", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 4
fstat64(4, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
close(4) = 0
time(NULL) = 1245705534
pipe([4, 5]) = 0
fcntl64(4, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC) = 0
fcntl64(5, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGSEGV, {0xb8084900, [SEGV], 0}, {SIG_DFL}, 8) = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, NULL, [], 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGSEGV, {SIG_DFL}, NULL, 8) = 0
gettimeofday({1245705534, 60827}, NULL) = 0
stat64("/usr/lib/open-vm-tools/vmsvc", 0xbfec85dc) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
exit_group(1) = ?

vmtoolsd is looking for /usr/lib/open-vm-tools/vmsvc, but the actual path is /usr/lib/open-vm-tools/plugins/vmsvc

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

BTW:
ln -s /usr/lib/open-vm-tools/plugins/vmsvc /usr/lib/open-vm-tools/vmsvc
makes vmtoolsd work.

[Marcelo Vanzin (mvanzin)]

Hi Craig,

The vmtoolsd issue is a problem in the vmtoolsd source, not the package (although symlinking can help in the meantime as you've noticed). I'll fix it in the Tools source.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

Thanks, Marcelo!

I believe I have found another problem. vmtoolsd does not work if the "--background" option is specified.

# vmtoolsd -l --background /var/run/vmtoolsd.pid
[Jun 22 18:14:42.984: ] [ warning] [vmtools] Hostinfo_Daemonize: Child could not exec /home/candrews/vmtoolsd, read 4, error 2.

It appears vmtoolsd is looking for itself in the cwd, instead of where it is actually located.

[Marcelo Vanzin (mvanzin)]

Thanks for letting us know. In the meantime, you can work around that by using the absolute path to execute vmtoolsd with the --background option (e.g. /usr/bin/vmtoolsd --background ...).

[Greek Ordono (grexk)]

I'm not authorized to upload to karmic, how can I be sponsored? I uploaded fixes for vmtoolsd, can you confirm if this is working now?

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

You are remarkable - the addition of Jaunty packages to the PPA makes my life a whole lot easier. I just installed the new packages on one of the Jaunty servers I use, and it worked great. vmtoolsd started right up, and seems to work without a hassle.

Looking through the package changelog, these appear to be the Ubuntu developer contacts you may have the best luck with:
Devid Antonio Filoni <email address hidden>
Dan Sheridan <email address hidden>

The ideal approach would be to get your patches in Debian. The debian maintainer for open-vm-tools is: Daniel Baumann <email address hidden>

There is a bug in debian requesting DKMS support at http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=516251

Also, the #ubuntu-dev channel on freenode may be able to help you find a sponsor.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

I have no idea what to do next... How do we get this included?

I contact the kernel team, here is their response: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/2009-June/006184.html

Ubuntu is fine with DKMS, so this package should be picked up. We just need someone at Debian or Ubuntu to accept it.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

I've emailed Daniel (the Debian maintainer) and I'm trying to contact the Ubuntu MOTU team as well.

Anyways, open-vm-tools-2009.06.18-172495 has been released. If it's not too much to ask, would you mind updating this package?

[Greek Ordono (grexk)]

I'm going to sync later this week with upstream package.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

According to Daniel Baumann, Debian could add open-vm-tools to a conglomeration package of kernel modules if these Debian bugs are resolved:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=525816
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=531936
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=532293
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=518014

I believe Greek Ordono's packaging fixes all 4.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

grexk, did you do any more work on the packaging?

MOTU team, are you able to accept this? What is holding it back?

[Greek Ordono (grexk)]

I'm quite busy for the past months. here is dkms debdiff for karmic.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

It would be awesome to have this fixed for the upcoming LTS release... grexk, are you still interested in doing so?

[Evan Broder (broder)]

grexk: thanks for the patch. A few nits for future reference:
 - LP closers are generally of the form (LP: #nnnnnn) - you didn't have the hash
 - It looks like you added a superfluous line to set SRC_VERSION in debian/rules
 - Your version number was appropriate for a PPA upload, but not for uploading to Ubuntu. There's some discussion of version numbering schemes at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment#Working%20with%20Ubuntu%20Packages>

Of course, packages that support building kernel modules with module-assistant are special. For those packages, it's necessary to use +ubuntu1 instead of just ubuntu1 in order to avoid version sorting issues.

I've combined grexk's patch with my patch for bug #391224 with the recommendations on using dkms in bug #497149. I've uploaded a test build to my PPA (https://launchpad.net/~broder/+archive/ubuntu-tests), and I'm attaching the resulting debdiff. I'm going to do some testing to make sure everything's in order, and hopefully I'll be able to upload tonight or tomorrow.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package open-vm-tools - 2009.11.16-210370-1+ubuntu1

---------------
open-vm-tools (2009.11.16-210370-1+ubuntu1) lucid; urgency=low

  * Recommend open-vm-toolbox in open-vm-tools. (LP: #391224)
  * Add support for dkms - based on patch from Greek Ordono. (LP: #277556)
 -- Evan Broder <email address hidden> Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:18:42 -0500