CentOS - Jun 2005 - Script for compiling custom kernel modules

Hello fellow Linux users. So far I have been good about not adding too
many third party software on my servers. One exception is that I
generally need third party kernel modules for my hardware. Two of the
most important being lm_sensors and 3ware 9000 ones. Now Update 5
includes a 3ware 9000 modules so I might not need to build my own in
the future although I think the one I mentioned is not the type that
automatically updates the firmware on the card after a reboot but that
is for another post.

I'm sure there are people out there who have to build kernel modules
for their hardware as well. But it is a bit of a pain to keep doing
that each time there is a newe kernel security update. So is anyone
using scripts to automate this process that they would like to share?
It's not like each computer has different hardware, it is all the same
but not all of them have tools like gcc and kernel source installed.
Only one computer where I compile stuff. Easier to maintain this way.
What do you think?

Juan Carlos wrote:
>I'm sure there are people out there who have to build kernel modules
>for their hardware as well. But it is a bit of a pain to keep doing
>that each time there is a newe kernel security update. So is anyone
>using scripts to automate this process that they would like to share?
>It's not like each computer has different hardware, it is all the same
>but not all of them have tools like gcc and kernel source installed.
>Only one computer where I compile stuff. Easier to maintain this way.
>What do you think?
>  
>
Although it's not a hardware module, I have to rebuild a kernel module 
for MPPE in order to use pptpclient for VPN.  Like your situation, this 
module has to be recompiled every time I upgrade the kernel.  The 
pptpclient project recommends "DKMS" (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) 
which is sponsored by Dell.  It works great on my system; every time the 
kernel is upgraded, the module is automatically recompiled and installed 
at boot time.  Maybe this might work for you...

http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml#dkms
http://linux.dell.com/dkms/dkms.html

It has pretty decent commands for tracking which kernel modules exist 
for which kernel versions, etc.

-Greg