Dynamic Kernel Module Support from Dell

Two of the things the Linux community most desires are drivers and easy access to those drivers. The first one is happening and the other one will be on its way to accomplishment, thanks to Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS), a Linux project started by Dell.

Dynamic Kernel Module Support is designed to create a framework where the kernel dependent module source can reside so the upgrading of the kernel and the rebuilding of the modules happen at the same time. It offers advantages for vendors who can provide from now on driver drops without waiting for a new kernel version.

It also offers advantages to the more experienced users because of the separate framework for driver drops that can remove kernel releases as a blocking mechanism for distributing code. The speed of driver development should increase, thanks to the separate module source tree which will allow quicker testing cycles, resulting better tested code that can be put back in the kernel in a faster way. DKMS only requires a source tarball and a small configuration file in order to function correctly.

It seems there are some problems installing DKMS on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 9 and SLES 10, issue that should be fixed soon, since it was reported at the beginning of this month.

On Direct2Dell, the company's blog, Matt Domsch, Linux Technology Strategist comments:"Dell uses DKMS to distribute updated device drivers for RHEL, SLES, and Ubuntu built against the "gold" kernels of those products. This lets us fix and replace individual device drivers to support new hardware without having to respin the whole CD."

An interesting feature integrated in Dynamic Kernel Module Support is "mkrpm". This will be used to automatically download drivers that match the hardware in one's system but which don't appear in the distribution's kernel.