Failed to build tp-smapi dkms on xenial-hwe 4.15 kernel

[Gavin Lin]

Failed to build tp-smapi dkms after upgrading kernel to 4.15.0-100.101~16.04.1-generic.
Didn't see function lost in the test.

Test output:

4 modules for 4.4.0-179-generic
3 modules for 4.15.0-100-generic
DKMS module number is inconsistent. Some modules may not be built.

=== DKMS status ===
bbswitch, 0.8, 4.15.0-100-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.8, 4.15.0-58-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.8, 4.4.0-179-generic, x86_64: installed
fwts-efi-runtime-dkms, 20.02.00, 4.15.0-100-generic, x86_64: installed
fwts-efi-runtime-dkms, 20.02.00, 4.15.0-58-generic, x86_64: installed
fwts-efi-runtime-dkms, 20.02.00, 4.4.0-179-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-384, 384.130, 4.15.0-100-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-384, 384.130, 4.15.0-58-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-384, 384.130, 4.4.0-179-generic, x86_64: installed
tp-smapi, 0.41, 4.4.0-179-generic, x86_64: installed
Found dkms build error messages in /var/log/apt/term.log

=== build log ===

Building module:
cleaning build area....
make KERNELRELEASE=4.15.0-100-generic -C /lib/modules/4.15.0-100-generic/build M=/var/lib/dkms/tp-smapi/0.41/build....(bad exit status: 2)
ERROR: Cannot create report: [Errno 17] File exists: '/var/crash/tp-smapi-dkms.0.crash'
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 4.15.0-100-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/tp-smapi/0.41/build/make.log for more information.
   ...done.
Setting up linux-headers-generic-hwe-16.04 (4.15.0.100.107) ...
Setting up linux-generic-hwe-16.04 (4.15.0.100.107) ...
Setting up linux-libc-dev:amd64 (4.4.0-179.209) ...
--

Building module:
cleaning build area....
make KERNELRELEASE=4.15.0-100-generic -C /lib/modules/4.15.0-100-generic/build M=/var/lib/dkms/tp-smapi/0.41/build....(bad exit status: 2)
ERROR: Cannot create report: [Errno 17] File exists: '/var/crash/tp-smapi-dkms.0.crash'
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 4.15.0-100-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/tp-smapi/0.41/build/make.log for more information.
   ...done.
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-100-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin for module i915

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Lukas Waymann (meribold)]

I think we've only observed this build failure on machines that aren't ThinkPads, which may be expected behavior. The tp-smapi-dkms package was pulled in as a transitive, optional dependency of plainbox-provider-sru:

$ aptitude why tp-smapi-dkms
i plainbox-provider-sru Depends plainbox-provider-certification-client
i A plainbox-provider-certification-client Recommends hdapsd
i A hdapsd Recommends tp-smapi-dkms | tp-smapi-source