[Pkg-virtualbox-devel] Bug#700516: [virtualbox-dkms] building VBOX modules depends on IOMMU being enabled in the kernel config

[Chris Knadle]

Package: virtualbox-dkms
Version: 4.1.18-dfsg-2.1
Severity: normal

--- Please enter the report below this line. ---

When building the VirtualBox modules using linux-source-3.7 from Debian 
Experimental, the build will fail without IOMMU support being configured-in:

----------------
  LD      /var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.18/build/vboxpci/built-in.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.18/build/vboxpci/linux/VBoxPci-linux.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.18/build/vboxpci/VBoxPci.o
In file included from 
/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.18/build/vboxpci/VBoxPciInternal.h:34:0,
                 from 
/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.18/build/vboxpci/VBoxPci.c:38:
include/linux/iommu.h: In function ‘iommu_group_alloc’:
include/linux/iommu.h:272:2: error: implicit declaration of function ‘ERR_PTR’ 
[-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
include/linux/iommu.h:272:2: warning: return makes pointer from integer 
without a cast [enabled by default]
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[2]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.18/build/vboxpci/VBoxPci.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.18/build/vboxpci] Error 2
make: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/virtualbox/4.1.18/build] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/home/cknadle/src/LinuxDev/linux-source-3.7'
----------------

An interesting aspect of this is that the VirtualBox modules build just fine 
against upstream Linux 3.5.7 /without/ IOMMU being configured-in, but does 
fail for upstream Linux 3.6 and 3.7.

As all of the hardware I own does *not* support IOMMU, having to configure it 
in to be able to compile the VirtualBox modules is counterintuitive and thus 
seems like it's a bug, so I'm writing this mainly to let other users know 
about the problem.  I'm not sure what severity this should have, so I'm just 
going to leave it as "normal".

Thanks.

  -- Chris

--
Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle at coredump.us


--- System information. ---
Architecture: amd64
Kernel:       Linux 3.7.3-c2d-crk-2

Debian Release: 7.0
  500 unstable        www.deb-multimedia.org 
  500 unstable        ftp.us.debian.org 
  500 unstable        download.jitsi.org 
  500 testing         security.debian.org 
  500 testing         ftp.us.debian.org 
  500 stable          dl.google.com 
    1 experimental    ftp.us.debian.org 

--- Package information. ---
Depends                   (Version) | Installed
===================================-+-=====================
dkms                   (>= 2.1.0.0) | 2.2.0.3-1.2
virtualbox     (>= 4.1.18-dfsg-2.1) | 4.1.18-dfsg-2.1


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