How to write a BitBake driver recipe which requires kernel source header files?

Question

Introduction

I have a do_install task in a BitBake recipe which I've written for a driver where I execute a custom install script. The task fails because the installation script cannot find kernel source header files within <the image rootfs>/usr/src/kernel. This script runs fine on the generated OS.

What's Happening

Here's the relevant part of my recipe:

SRC_URI += "file://${TOPDIR}/example"
DEPENDS += " virtual/kernel linux-libc-headers "
do_install () {  
   ( cd ${TOPDIR}/example/Install ; ./install )
}

Here's a relevant portion of the install script:

if [ ! -d "/usr/src/kernel/include"  ]; then
  echo ERROR: Linux kernel source include directory not found.  
  exit 1
fi
cd /usr/src/kernel
make scripts
...
./install_drv pci ${DRV_ARGS}

I checked changing to if [ ! -d "/usr/src/kernel" ], which also failed. install passes different options to install_drv, which I have a relevant portion of below:

cd ${DRV_PATH}/pci
make NO_SYSFS=${ARG_NO_SYSFS} NO_INSTALL=${ARG_NO_INSTALL} ${ARGS_HWINT}
if [ ${ARG_NO_INSTALL} == 0 ]; then
  if [ `/sbin/lsmod | grep -ci "uceipci"` -eq 1 ]; then
    ./unload_pci
  fi
  ./load_pci DEBUG=${ARG_DEBUG}
fi

The make target build: within ${DRV_PATH}/pci is essentially this:

make -C /usr/src/kernel SUBDIRS=${PWD} modules

My Research

I found these comments within linux-libc-headers.inc relevant:

# You're probably looking here thinking you need to create some new copy
# of linux-libc-headers since you have your own custom kernel. To put 
# this simply, you DO NOT.
#
# Why? These headers are used to build the libc. If you customise the 
# headers you are customising the libc and the libc becomes machine
# specific. Most people do not add custom libc extensions to the kernel
# and have a machine specific libc.
#
# But you have some kernel headers you need for some driver? That is fine
# but get them from STAGING_KERNEL_DIR where the kernel installs itself.
# This will make the package using them machine specific but this is much
# better than having a machine specific C library. This does mean your 
# recipe needs a DEPENDS += "virtual/kernel" but again, that is fine and
# makes total sense.
#
# There can also be a case where your kernel extremely old and you want
# an older libc ABI for that old kernel. The headers installed by this
# recipe should still be a standard mainline kernel, not your own custom 
# one.

I'm a bit unclear if I can 'get' the headers from the STAGING_KERNEL_DIR properly since I'm not using make.

Within kernel.bbclass provided in the meta/classes directory, there is this variable assigment:

# Define where the kernel headers are installed on the target as well as where
# they are staged.
KERNEL_SRC_PATH = "/usr/src/kernel"

This path is then packaged later within that .bbclass file here:

PACKAGES = "kernel kernel-base kernel-vmlinux kernel-image kernel-dev kernel-modules"
...
FILES_kernel-dev = "/boot/System.map* /boot/Module.symvers* /boot/config* ${KERNEL_SRC_PATH} /lib/modules/${KERNEL_VERSION}/build"

Update (1/21):

A suggestion on the yocto IRC channel was to use the following line:

do_configure[depends] += "virtual/kernel:do_shared_workdir"

which is corroborated by the Yocto Project Reference Manual, which states that in version 1.8, there was the following change:

The kernel build process was changed to place the source in a common shared work area and to place build artifacts separately in the source code tree. In theory, migration paths have been provided for most common usages in kernel recipes but this might not work in all cases. In particular, users need to ensure that ${S} (source files) and ${B} (build artifacts) are used correctly in functions such as do_configure and do_install. For kernel recipes that do not inherit from kernel-yocto or include linux-yocto.inc, you might wish to refer to the linux.inc file in the meta-oe layer for the kinds of changes you need to make. For reference, here is the commit where the linux.inc file in meta-oewas updated.

Recipes that rely on the kernel source code and do not inherit the module classes might need to add explicit dependencies on the do_shared_workdir kernel task, for example:

do_configure[depends] += "virtual/kernel:do_shared_workdir" 

But I'm having difficulties applying this to my recipe. From what I understand, I should be able to change the above line to:

do_install[depends] += "virtual/kernel:do_shared_workdir"

Which would mean that the do_install task now must be run after do_shared_workdir task of the virtual/kernel recipe, which means that I should be able to work with the shared workdir (see Question 3 below), but I still have the same missing kernel header issue.

My Questions

I'm using a custom linux kernel (v3.14) from git.kernel.org. which inherits the kernel class. Here are some of my questions:

1. Shouldn't the package kernel-dev be a part of any recipe which inherits the kernel class? (this section of the variables glossary)
2. If I add the virtual/kernel to the DEPENDS variable, wouldn't that mean that the kernel-dev would be brought in?
3. If kernel-dev is part of the dependencies of my recipe, wouldn't I be able to point to the /usr/src/kernel directory from my recipe? According to this reply on the Yocto mailing list, I think I should.
4. How can I properly reference the kernel source header files, preferably without changing the installation script?

Answer 1

Consider your Environment

Remember that there are different environments within the the build time environment, consisting of:

• sysroots
• in the case of kernels, a shared work directory
• target packages

kernel-dev is a target package, which you'd install into the rootfs of the target system for certain things like kernel symbol maps which are needed by profiling tools like perf/oprofile. It is not present at build time although some of its contents are available in the sysroots or shared workdir.

Point to the Correct Directories

Your do_install runs at build time so this is within the build directory structures of the build system, not the target one. In particular, /usr/src/ won't be correct, it would need to be some path within your build directory. The virtual/kernel do_shared_workdir task populates ${STAGING_DIR_KERNEL} so you would want to change to that directory in your script.

Adding a Task Dependency

The:

do_install[depends] += "virtual/kernel:do_shared_workdir

dependency like looks correct for your use case, assuming nothing in do_configure or do_compile accesses the data there.

Reconsider the module BitBake class

The other answers are correct in the recommendation to look at module.bbclass, since this illustrates how common kernel modules can be built. If you want to use custom functions or make commands, this is fine, you can just override them. If you really don't want to use that class, I would suggest taking inspiration from it though.

Task Dependencies

Adding virtual/kernel to DEPENDS means virtual/kernel:do_populate_sysroot must run before our do_configure task. Since you need a dependency for do_shared_workdir here, a DEPENDS on virtual/kernel is not enough.

Answer to Question 3

The kernel-dev package would be built, however it would then need to be installed into your target image and used at runtime on a real target. You need this at build time so kernel-dev is not appropriate.

Other Suggestions

You'd likely want the kernel-devsrc package for what you're doing, not the kernel-dev package.