[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#236543: alsa-source: depmod -a reports freak out for new kernel

[Ross Boylan]

Package: alsa-source
Version: 1.0.2c-3
Severity: normal

After building a new kernel and modules the Debian way, I got a series
of alarming messages on installation of the alsa-modules I had built.
I have booted into the new kernel, and everything seems to be OK, so I
think the warnings are spurious.

I also suspect the problem is really with depmod or perhaps some of
the kernel building stuff.  Please reassign if appropriate.

The error messages seem to be the product of the recently introduced
depmod versioning in the postinst script, which in my case says
depmod -a 2.4.24advncdfs (see related bug #231973).

I verified outside of the postinst that issuing that command produces
the indicated errors (see below) while running my old 2.4.21 kernel.
Now that I'm in 2.4.24, depmod -a produces no errors.

The errors look like this:
Setting up alsa-modules-2.4.24advncdfs (1.0.2c-2+rb.2) ...
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.24advncdfs/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/apm.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.24advncdfs/kernel/crypto/deflate.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.24advncdfs/kernel/crypto/tcrypt.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.24advncdfs/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.24advncdfs/kernel/drivers/block/loop.o
and many more, possibly one per object file.

When I did this with diagnostics, I noticed that many of the symbols
involved devfs (possibly all, but I couldn't tell from the names).  I
enabled devfs in 2.4.24; it was off in 2.4.21.  Perhaps that in
particular triggered the problem, which I have not had in previous
upgrades.

Unfortunately, I did not preserve the full error diagnostics from the
old kernel.  I can still boot into that kernel and try to get them,
if that would help.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (50, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.24advncdfs
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US

Versions of packages alsa-source depends on:
ii  bzip2                         1.0.2-1    A high-quality block-sorting file 
ii  debconf                       1.4.11     Debian configuration management sy
ii  debconf-utils                 1.4.11     debconf utilities
ii  debhelper                     4.2.4      helper programs for debian/rules
ii  gcc [c-compiler]              4:3.3.2-2  The GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-3.2 [c-compiler]          1:3.2.3-9  The GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-3.3 [c-compiler]          1:3.3.3-1  The GNU C compiler
ii  make                          3.80-6     The GNU version of the "make" util

-- debconf information:
  alsa-source/really_overwrite_cards_to_be_built: true
  alsa-common/card-list: 
* alsa-source/cards_to_be_built: sbawe (ISA: Sound Blaster AWE 32/64)
* alsa-source/debug: false
  alsa-source/really_overwrite_has_pnp: true
* alsa-source/has_pnp: true
  alsa-source/really_overwrite_debug: true