Is in necessary to recompiile the kernel to compile a usb driver

I download the iso for debian cd1, burned the disk, followed the prompts and
debian 2.6.18-6-486 is up and running. I want to install a USB microsoft
wireless broadband adapter MN-510, which has a prism chipset. I apt-get
install linux-wlan-ng and it is there. I need, however, prism2_usb which is
part of the linux-wlan-ng package. So I download the tarball and try to
compile it and it won't compile because it says the debian source tree is
incomplete. Still won't work when I copy .config to the directory at
/lib/modules/2.6.18-6-486/kernel where everything seems to be. I gather
from the README this is because I don't have "configured kernel source code"
because I downloaded a compiled version of debian. Getting to the question
now. Do I have to recompile the whole kernel to obtain the configured
kernel source code so I can compile the single driver prism2_usb???

Thanks,

Henry

In article <MSW5l.1609$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Henry M Pollock <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I download the iso for debian cd1, burned the disk, followed the prompts and
> debian 2.6.18-6-486 is up and running. I want to install a USB microsoft
> wireless broadband adapter MN-510, which has a prism chipset. I apt-get
> install linux-wlan-ng and it is there. I need, however, prism2_usb which is
> part of the linux-wlan-ng package. So I download the tarball and try to
> compile it and it won't compile because it says the debian source tree is
> incomplete. Still won't work when I copy .config to the directory at
> /lib/modules/2.6.18-6-486/kernel

Which is a link to something like /usr/src/linux-source-22.6.18-6-486

> where everything seems to be. I gather
> from the README this is because I don't have "configured kernel source code"
> because I downloaded a compiled version of debian. Getting to the question
> now. Do I have to recompile the whole kernel to obtain the configured
> kernel source code so I can compile the single driver prism2_usb???

No, just run "make config" in the kernel source directory. If the
..config might be a different version (any part of it) than the source, "make
oldconfig" instead.

Unless you actually run a 486 with all the stuff that's in the kernel,
you could probably realize some gains (either in speed or stability) by
recompiling the kernel, in the process disabling all the NICs and
filesystems and assorted gizmos you don't use.

--
-eben (E-Mail Removed)P royalty.mine.nu:81
> A: It's annoying as hell
> Q: Why do most people hate top-posting? -- Lots42 The Library Avenger
http://www.fscked.co.uk/writing/top-posting-cuss.html

Hello,

Henry M Pollock a écrit :
> I download the iso for debian cd1, burned the disk, followed the prompts and
> debian 2.6.18-6-486 is up and running. I want to install a USB microsoft
> wireless broadband adapter MN-510, which has a prism chipset. I apt-get
> install linux-wlan-ng and it is there. I need, however, prism2_usb which is
> part of the linux-wlan-ng package. So I download the tarball and try to
> compile it and it won't compile because it says the debian source tree is
> incomplete. Still won't work when I copy .config to the directory at
> /lib/modules/2.6.18-6-486/kernel where everything seems to be. I gather
> from the README this is because I don't have "configured kernel source code"
> because I downloaded a compiled version of debian. Getting to the question
> now. Do I have to recompile the whole kernel to obtain the configured
> kernel source code so I can compile the single driver prism2_usb???

You don't need to rebuild a kernel when building an out-of-tree module.
However you usually need to install the headers for your kernel version,
i.e. linux-headers-2.6.18-6-486.

>
> Which is a link to something like /usr/src/linux-source-22.6.18-6-486
>
/usr/src/ is empty, there is no mention of the version except at /lib/
modules/2.6.18-6-486/kernel and I don't think that the source code is
part of the distro I downloaded. So I went here
http://packages.debian.org/etch/linux-tree-2.6.18 to download the
tree. That produced a tremendous number of files, maybe 50mb worth.

>No, just run "make config" in the kernel source directory
Now when I run make config I get an error message-
"The kernel header files are present. but not the full source code"

There are people who think Windows is bloated but they have probably
never tried to load a USB driver in Linux

In article <f42d3515-bb7b-47d3-a41d-(E-Mail Removed)>,
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > Which is a link to something like /usr/src/linux-source-22.6.18-6-486
> >
> /usr/src/ is empty, there is no mention of the version except at /lib/
> modules/2.6.18-6-486/kernel and I don't think that the source code is
> part of the distro I downloaded.

Crud, not kernel, source.

Is /lib/modules/`uname -r`/source a link? To what? I have:

eben@pc:~$ ls -ld /lib/modules/`uname -r`/source
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2008-12-25 23:24 /lib/modules/2.6.26.5/source -> /usr/src/linux-2.6.26.5/

eben@pc:~$ ls -ld /usr/src/linux
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root src 14 2008-10-05 20:17 /usr/src/linux -> linux-2.6.26.5/

eben@pc:~$ ls -l /usr/src/linux-2.6.26.5/
total 14M
4.0K drwxr-xr-x 27 eben eben 4.0K 2008-12-25 20:04 arch/
4.0K drwxr-xr-x 2 eben eben 4.0K 2008-12-25 20:04 block/
4.0K -rwxr-xr-x 1 eben eben 670 2008-11-26 16:57 config*
20K -rw-r--r-- 1 eben eben 19K 2008-09-08 13:40 COPYING
etc.

> So I went here
> http://packages.debian.org/etch/linux-tree-2.6.18 to download the
> tree. That produced a tremendous number of files, maybe 50mb worth.
>
> >No, just run "make config" in the kernel source directory
> Now when I run make config I get an error message-
> "The kernel header files are present. but not the full source code"

Not sure what its beef is. Where did you put that 50 MB?

> There are people who think Windows is bloated but they have probably
> never tried to load a USB driver in Linux

Yeah? And how big is the Windows source code? Oh, that's right, you
can't see it without an NDA.

If you're going to blame someone for not including every driver under
the sun, blame your distro.

--
-eben (E-Mail Removed)P royalty.mine.nu:81
TAURUS: You will never find true happiness - what you gonna
do, cry about it? The stars predict tomorrow you'll wake up,
do a bunch of stuff and then go back to sleep. -- Weird Al

(E-Mail Removed) (Hactar) writes:

>In article <f42d3515-bb7b-47d3-a41d-(E-Mail Removed)>,
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> > Which is a link to something like /usr/src/linux-source-22.6.18-6-486
>> >
>> /usr/src/ is empty, there is no mention of the version except at /lib/
>> modules/2.6.18-6-486/kernel and I don't think that the source code is
>> part of the distro I downloaded.

The source code is ALWAYS part of the distro you downloaded. Why do you not
tell us what your distro is? Anyway on redhat/madriva type it is the rpm
called
kernel-source


>Crud, not kernel, source.

>Is /lib/modules/`uname -r`/source a link? To what? I have:

Probably not, since /usr/src is the usual place to put it.


>eben@pc:~$ ls -ld /lib/modules/`uname -r`/source
>0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2008-12-25 23:24 /lib/modules/2.6.26.5/source -> /usr/src/linux-2.6.26.5/

See. And he says that there is nothing in /usr/src.


>eben@pc:~$ ls -ld /usr/src/linux
>0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root src 14 2008-10-05 20:17 /usr/src/linux -> linux-2.6.26.5/

>eben@pc:~$ ls -l /usr/src/linux-2.6.26.5/
>total 14M
>4.0K drwxr-xr-x 27 eben eben 4.0K 2008-12-25 20:04 arch/
>4.0K drwxr-xr-x 2 eben eben 4.0K 2008-12-25 20:04 block/
>4.0K -rwxr-xr-x 1 eben eben 670 2008-11-26 16:57 config*
> 20K -rw-r--r-- 1 eben eben 19K 2008-09-08 13:40 COPYING
>etc.

>> So I went here
>> http://packages.debian.org/etch/linux-tree-2.6.18 to download the
>> tree. That produced a tremendous number of files, maybe 50mb worth.

I am not sure how devian is arranged but that is probably not the right
thing to do.
But the kernel source is more like 250MB than 50MB


>>
>> >No, just run "make config" in the kernel source directory
>> Now when I run make config I get an error message-
>> "The kernel header files are present. but not the full source code"

>Not sure what its beef is. Where did you put that 50 MB?

>> There are people who think Windows is bloated but they have probably
>> never tried to load a USB driver in Linux

??? All distros come with usb driver already compiled and in the distro.
What in the world are you trying to do?

Anyway, in Windows, you do not compile your own source. That is illegal.
Either MS gives it to you or the distributor of your dongle give it to you
as precompiled stuff.


>Yeah? And how big is the Windows source code? Oh, that's right, you
>can't see it without an NDA.

>If you're going to blame someone for not including every driver under
>the sun, blame your distro.

ALL distros include usb drivers. That is why I have no idea what he is
talking about.


>--
>-eben (E-Mail Removed)P royalty.mine.nu:81
>TAURUS: You will never find true happiness - what you gonna
>do, cry about it? The stars predict tomorrow you'll wake up,
>do a bunch of stuff and then go back to sleep. -- Weird Al

On 2008-12-30, Hactar <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> In article <f42d3515-bb7b-47d3-a41d-(E-Mail Removed)>,
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
*SKIP*
>> Now when I run make config I get an error message-
>> "The kernel header files are present. but not the full source code"
>
> Not sure what its beef is. Where did you put that 50 MB?
>

That doesn't matter.

{29291:86} [0:0]$ apt-cache show -a=no linux-tree-2.6.26 |tail -5
tree corresponding to each of the virtual packages listed.