[Pkg-dkms-maint] Bug#704788: dkms should not uninstall modules from older kernel[s]

[Michel L.]

Package: dkms
Version: 2.2.0.3-1.2
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,


* What led up to the situation?


After a recent upgrade of linux-{headers,image}-3.8-trunk-amd64, and
after a reboot; noticed that tp_smapi module was not found:

Loading kernel module tp_smapi.
FATAL: Module tp_smapi not found.

And sysfs attributes could not be set:

Setting sysfs variables...[....] unknown attribute devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/start_charge_thresh

Not sure what caused this.


* What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or ineffective)?

So ran:

dpkg-reconfigure tp-smapi-dkms


-------- Uninstall Beginning --------
Module:  tp-smapi
Version: 0.41
Kernel:  3.2.0-4-amd64 (x86_64)
-------------------------------------

Status: Before uninstall, this module version was ACTIVE on this kernel.

thinkpad_ec.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


tp_smapi.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.


hdaps.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.

depmod.....

DKMS: uninstall completed.

------------------------------
Deleting module version: 0.41
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.

Creating symlink /var/lib/dkms/tp-smapi/0.41/source ->
                 /usr/src/tp-smapi-0.41

DKMS: add completed.

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel.  Skipping...

Building module:
cleaning build area....
make KERNELRELEASE=3.8-trunk-amd64 -C /lib/modules/3.8-trunk-amd64/build M=/var/lib/dkms/tp-smapi/0.41/build.....
cleaning build area....

DKMS: build completed.

thinkpad_ec:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.8-trunk-amd64/updates/dkms/

tp_smapi.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.8-trunk-amd64/updates/dkms/

hdaps.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.8-trunk-amd64/updates/dkms/

depmod.....

DKMS: install completed.


* What was the outcome of this action?


The tp_smapi module was installed on kernel 3.8 and loaded again after a
reboot. And sysfs was able to set the attributes.

But why is the other kernel module uninstalled? 

dkms status 
tp-smapi, 0.41, 3.8-trunk-amd64, x86_64: installed

Booted into 3.2 kernel and got the same result as with the 3.8 kernel,
before running 'dpkg-reconfigure tp-smapi-dkms', as expected.

Running 'dpkg-reconfigure tp-smapi-dkms' on the 3.2 kernel would then
delete the tp_smapi kernel module for the 3.8 kernel.

Reinstalling the linux-headers-3.2.0-4-amd64 package, installed the
tp_smapi module for the 3.2 kernel.  Without uninstalling the 3.8
tp_smapi kernel module:

dkms status
tp-smapi, 0.41, 3.2.0-4-amd64, x86_64: installed
tp-smapi, 0.41, 3.8-trunk-amd64, x86_64: installed


* What outcome did you expect instead?


DKMS not to uninstall modules from other/older installed kernel[s].


Thanks,
Michel


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.8-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages dkms depends on:
ii  build-essential    11.5
ii  coreutils          8.13-3.5
ii  dpkg-dev           1.16.10
ii  gcc                4:4.7.2-1
ii  make               3.81-8.2
ii  module-init-tools  9-2
ii  patch              2.6.1-3

Versions of packages dkms recommends:
ii  fakeroot                                       1.18.4-2
ii  linux-headers-3.2.0-4-amd64 [linux-headers]    3.2.41-2
ii  linux-headers-3.8-trunk-amd64 [linux-headers]  3.8.5-1~experimental.1
ii  linux-headers-amd64 [linux-headers]            3.2+46
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-4-amd64 [linux-image]        3.2.41-2
ii  linux-image-3.8-trunk-amd64 [linux-image]      3.8.5-1~experimental.1
ii  menu                                           2.1.46
ii  sudo                                           1.8.5p2-1+nmu1

dkms suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information