[Pkg-zfsonlinux-devel] Bug#1112267: zfs-dkms doesn't attempt to build for any kernels: missing dependency on linux-headers?

[Martin Pool]

Package: zfs-dkms
Version: 2.3.2-2
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: mbp at sourcefrog.net

Dear Maintainer,

I recently made a fresh install of Trixie amd64, and after applying all updates
attempted to install zfs-dkms.

Installation succeeds, but it does not seem to attempt to build any DKMS
modules, as a result of which the modules obviously can't be loaded and ZFS
filesystems can't be mounted.

During installation I get this output:

mbp at bobcat:~$ sudo apt reinstall zfs-dkms
Summary:
  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Reinstalling: 1, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0
  Download size: 2452 kB
  Space needed: 0 B / 1552 GB available

Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie/contrib amd64 zfs-dkms all 2.3.2-2
[2452 kB]
Fetched 2452 kB in 0s (8158 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 261168 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../zfs-dkms_2.3.2-2_all.deb ...
Deleting module zfs/2.3.2 completely from the DKMS tree.
Unpacking zfs-dkms (2.3.2-2) over (2.3.2-2) ...
Setting up zfs-dkms (2.3.2-2) ...
Loading new zfs/2.3.2 DKMS files...
Building for
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.148.3) ..
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.38+deb13-amd64

Note the "Building for [blank]" line.

After some investigation it seems the problem is that I didn't have the kernel
headers installed, and `/usr/lib/dkms/common.postinst` in this case decides to
do nothing.

Manually installing linux-headers-amd64 and then reinstalling zfs-dkms fixes
it.

I'd like to suggest two changes:

1. Maybe the postinst script (or some part of the zfs-dkms install chain?)
should fail if no modules can be built? This script seems unchanged from the
upstream https://github.com/dell/dkms/blob/main/dkms_common.postinst.in so
perhaps I should suggest it there?

2. Maybe Debian's zfs-dkms (or dkms itself?) should depend upon or at least
recommend linux-headers? (I can't believe I'm the first to hit this so perhaps
there's some strong reason why it does not?)


Thanks!


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 13.0
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.12.38+deb13-amd64 (SMP w/24 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages zfs-dkms depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.91
ii  dkms                   3.2.0-1
ii  file                   1:5.46-5
ii  libc6-dev [libc-dev]   2.41-12
ii  libpython3-stdlib      3.13.5-1
ii  lsb-release            12.1-1

Versions of packages zfs-dkms recommends:
ii  linux-libc-dev  6.12.38-1
ii  zfs-zed         2.3.2-2
ii  zfsutils-linux  2.3.2-2

Versions of packages zfs-dkms suggests:
pn  debhelper  <none>

-- debconf information:
* zfs-dkms/note-incompatible-licenses:
  zfs-dkms/stop-build-for-32bit-kernel: true
  zfs-dkms/stop-build-for-unknown-kernel: true