Driver Installation Ubuntu kernel 2.6.17 Basic Help

[Bryan Kadzban]

ahuguet at cttc.es wrote:
>> maybe add a
>> 2.5 'make -C /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.17 SUBDIRS=./ clean'
> 
> If I do this, I get:
> 
>   CLEAN   .
>   CLEAN   .//.tmp_versions
> 
> Then: make -C /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.17 SUBDIRS=./ modules
> 
> I get:
>   CC      arch/i386/kernel/asm-offsets.s
>   GEN     include/asm-i386/asm-offsets.h
>   Building modules, stage 2.
>   MODPOST

That's not right.  It should have "CC (M)"'ed a bunch of files too.

Does it work any differently if you use SUBDIRS="`pwd`" instead of "./"?

> Once I have compiled the hostap modules, that are then stored at:
> /lib/modules/2.6.17.14-ubuntu1/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/hostap
> and that are hostap.ko, hostap_cs.ko, hostap_pci.ko, hostap_plx.ko right?
> 
> Could I simply copy this modules, and paste them in another linux
> distribution computer, inside its modules folder, and load them with
> modprobe?

Absolutely not.  The internal kernel interfaces are explicitly *not*
stable.  (See [1] -- the relevant parts there are under the "Binary
Kernel Interface" section.  That document doesn't address what you're
trying to do exactly, but much of the information is still relevant).

Modules can *not* be moved from one kernel version to another, because
there is no stable binary interface in the kernel.  Even changing some
options in .config changes the module interface (e.g. regparm,
4K-stacks, SMP, etc.).  If the gcc version changes, that's also a
problem.

But it's a problem with all kernel modules, not just hostap.

> If I can't I guess I'll have to port the code (hostap .c and .h files)
> compile anew there, make modules, and use them, but I wondered if I could
> skip the compilation process there.

Can't skip it, sorry.

[1] http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/stable_api_nonsense.html

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