All the steps to create a deb package with a DKMS module. It’s assumes a native deb package for simplicity.

Preparation

  1. Install tools for deb packaging:

    apt install devscripts dh # TODO check it

  2. Install DKMS:

    apt install dkms

Generate a base debian package

By default, dkms mkdsc uses the systems directories when creating and building a DKMS package.

To override that, create a file pointing to your local directory:

cat > framework.confg << EOF
source_tree="$PWD/"
dkms_tree="$PWD/dkms"
EOF

Example:

$ cat framework.conf
source_tree="/home/mhcerri/workspace/linux/vmbus-rdma/"
dkms_tree="/home/mhcerri/workspace/linux/vmbus-rdma/dkms"

And create the dkms directory:

mkdir ./dkms

Create a directory following the pattern: <package name>-<version>.

Example:

# name=azure-rdma-driver-142
# version=0.0.1
mkdir azure-rdma-driver-142-0.0.1

And place the module source code in it. The source code should be buildable with make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r) M="$PWD" modules.

In the same directory, create a dkms.conf file. Example:

firmware_version="142"
PACKAGE_NAME="azure-rdma-driver-$firmware_version"
PACKAGE_VERSION="0.0.1"
DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[0]="/kernel/updates/dkms/" # It seems to be ignored in Ubuntu but still mandatory.
BUILT_MODULE_NAME[0]="hv_network_direct"
DEST_MODULE_NAME[0]="hv_network_direct_$firmware_version"

The dkms.conf file is just a shell script that is sourced by dkms mkdsc. Note that firmware_version for instance is just a helper variable.

All the supported variable are described in the dkms man page under the DKMS.CONF section.

Then run the dkms mkdsc to generate the source package:

dkms mkdsc -m azure-rdma-driver-142 -v 0.0.1 --dkmsframework framework.conf

That will be placed in the ./dkms/ directory. Example:

dkms/azure-rdma-driver-142/0.0.1/dsc/azure-rdma-driver-142-dkms_0.0.1.tar.gz

One alternative is to use this source package as a base to the final package. For that some actions might be necessary:

  • Remove the *.dkms.tar.gz.
  • Update the copyright file.
  • Update the changelog.
  • Fix a few lintian errors.