kmod-nvidia revisited

[sam.sharpe+lists.redhat at gmail.com]

gilpel at altern.org wrote:
>Phil Meyer wrote:
>> The akmod tools will rebuild the kernel module(s) for you
>> on the boot of the new kernel.
>
> Really? I thought it involved some extra manip. Here's my last kmod
> upgrade:
>
>Aug 06 14:34:22 Updated:
>xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-185.18.31-1.fc11.x86_64 Aug 06 14:34:22
>Updated: kmod-nvidia-185.18.31-1.fc11.x86_64 Aug 06 14:34:24 Updated:
>xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-185.18.31-1.fc11.x86_64 Aug 06 14:34:29 Updated:
>kmod-nvidia-2.6.29.6-213.fc11.x86_64-185.18.29-1.fc11.x86_64
>Aug 06 14:34:36 Installed:
>kmod-nvidia-2.6.29.6-217.2.3.fc11.x86_64-185.18.31-1.fc11.x86_64
>
>akmod will do all this automatically?

Not quite as I understand it...

1) You install akmod-nvidia, which installs the Source for the NVidia
driver. 
2) You reboot, into a kernel which doesn't have an nvidia.ko
3) During boot, amkod will notice that you don't have the NVidia
driver RPM for that kernel, compile it for you into an RPM and install
it - so from then on you will have a kmod-nvidia made especially for
you.

It's pretty similar to Dell's DKMS, but instead of just compiling the
module for you and putting it in lib/modules/`uname -r`/ , it will
compile the module as an RPM, then install that RPM - the effect is the
same, but the package management gods are satisfied.

>> The next time you update and there is a newer version of the kmod-XXX
>> available, you will get it.
>
>Why is that if akmod has already done the job?

akmod builds a kmod-nvidia from whatever version of the Source RPM it
has - if a newer version or release of kmod-nvidia is released in the
Updates channel - that will get installed later.

There is however, no guarantee that akmod will generate a working
module, because typically it is using the settings that worked on the
version of the kernel and driver that existed when that akmod was made
- it may not compile until the NVidia driver is updated in response to
some kernel changes.

(that said, it hasn't failed me yet...)

--
Sam