Re: [tlug] Modprobe error

[Dave M G <martin@example.com>]

Botond,

Thank you for following up.
> What I meant was the habit of upgrading your kernel, not ivtv.
>   

Oh, sorry I misunderstood you.

> Is this automatic? Sounds scary.
>   
Yes, it is automatic. And I can understand why some may recommend that I 
carefully review all updates before upgrading.  And I also understand 
that for someone more expert in Linux that may seem But keep in mind 
that I am entirely unqualified to determine what is a good upgrade and 
what is bad.

To get more into it - it's an option I can set on the Ubuntu upgrade 
application to inform me of all updates, or automatically download and 
warn me before installing and all that. I used to have mine set to show 
me before it downloaded and installed anything. But when faced with the 
option of, for example, upgrading the kernel or not, well, why wouldn't I?

One could argue that my current problems with IVTV stem from the fact 
that I upgraded my kernel. But isn't that more of an IVTV problem than 
the kernels? I mean, I knew when I installed IVTV that it would be a 
clunky installation because of the lack of repository support (in other 
words, built from source). And also, for the last seven or so kernel 
upgrades since installing IVTV the rebuilding of IVTV has been annoying, 
but successful.

The end result of those two factors is that past evidence indicates that 
each kernel upgrade will require this annoying but workable installation 
with each kernel upgrade. How would I ever look at a new kernel and 
think it will be different this time without some really in-depth knowledge?

The thing is that I am never really going to be able to know that some 
upgrade that Ubuntu marks as "critical" isn't actually critical, because 
I don't understand Linux to that depth, and most likely never will. I 
am, and fully intend to be, an end-user. I want to drive the car, not 
build the engine. If the mechanic tells me the engine needs an upgrade, 
I'm not going to argue it every single time. Only when one mechanic's 
recommendation doesn't work as promised will I seek a second opinion.

So, long story short, I set the upgrades to be automatic for "critical" 
upgrades. I don't have the depth of Linux knowledge to make alternate 
decisions anyway.

> And what does modinfo say on a module bundled with the kernel? (e.g.
> `modinfo floppy`)
>   
dave@example.com:~$ modinfo floppy
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.15-26-686/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.ko
author:         Alain L. Knaff
license:        GPL
alias:          block-major-2-*
vermagic:       2.6.15-26-686 SMP preempt 686 gcc-4.0
depends:
srcversion:     772641A2C2E4EA7E1A1348F
parm:           FLOPPY_DMA:int
parm:           FLOPPY_IRQ:int
parm:           floppy:charp


> Did you also update your kernel source package (and headers)? When the
> binary kernel is upgraded, the ivtv source still gets built against the
> old kernel sources if you didn't upgrade that too.

Definitely. The first steps in the IVTV installation instructions are to 
upgrade the Linux source headers and package:
apt-get install linux-source-<kver> linux-headers-`uname -r`
(where <kver> is, in my case, 2.6.15)

--
Dave M G