DKMS Support?

[clemej]

First, thanks for doing this..

Until this driver gets into the kernel, I'm trying to set up DKMS with it for my wife's new yoga 11s laptop. She's a compulsory upgrader, so dkms support is a must... although i guess an rc.local hack might also work.

Regardless, it appears my simple dkms.conf file doesn't work:

PACKAGE_NAME="8723au"
PACKAGE_VERSION="0.1"
BUILD_MODULE_NAME[0]="8723au"
DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[0]="/kernel/drivers/net/wireless"
AUTOINSTALL="yes"

However, when i run dkms build i get this:

$ sudo dkms build -m 8723au -v 0.1

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel.  Skipping...

Building module:
cleaning build area....
make KERNELRELEASE=3.11.0-12-generic -C /lib/modules/3.11.0-12-generic/build M=/var/lib/dkms/8723au/0.1/build....
ERROR (dkms apport): binary package for 8723au: 0.1 not found
Error!  Build of 8723au.ko failed for: 3.11.0-12-generic (x86_64)
Consult the make.log in the build directory
/var/lib/dkms/8723au/0.1/build/ for more information.

and the log shows:

DKMS make.log for 8723au-0.1 for kernel 3.11.0-12-generic (x86_64)
Sat Oct 12 00:10:09 EDT 2013
make: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.11.0-12-generic' 
  LD      /var/lib/dkms/8723au/0.1/build/built-in.o
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST 0 modules
make: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.11.0-12-generic'

.. its almost like its trying to build the 'module' as a built-in, instead of a module? I checked the Makefile and its waaay more complicated than most module makefiles.

Any idea how I can get it to work?

[lwfinger]

Not really. I have never used DKMS and I have no idea of what is required. You should have your wife upgrade to a 3.12-rc4 kernel and the driver will then be built in.

Yes, that standalone Makefile is a lot more complicated than most as it does a lot of configuration.

[clemej]

Thanks. Is the driver under a differrent name? I don't see anything resembling an rtl8723au in https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/staging/rtl8712?id=refs/tags/v3.12-rc4

I suspect it's similar enough to another driver that it was merged with another one?

[lwfinger]

Sorry, I misspoke. The new driver in 3.12 is r8188eu. There is a user that is modifying r8723au for inclusion in the kernel, but I have not yet seen any reworked code. For the RTL8188EU, it took 2-3 weeks of full-time work. Perhaps the person that has undertaken the project underestimated the effort.

[clemej]

Ok, thanks for the info. And thanks for creating this repo. I'll hack on dkms support myself for a bit and then keep an eye out for the driver in later kernels.

[lwfinger]

If you have any patches that help DKMS building, send them to me and I'll make them available here.

[clemej]

I poked at this a bit an deciphered the Makefile a bit more. CONFIG_RTL8723AS-VAU was never defined if KERNELRELEASE is defined. Defining that to 'm' seems to have done the trick. Pull request pending if you choose to merge at your discretion.

[lwfinger]

The DKMS changes were pulled and pushed. Thanks.