Ubuntu
ndiswrapper package

ndiswrapper 1.60-8ubuntu2 fails to build on Focal with linux-hwe-5.8

Bug #1903549 reported by Kleber Sacilotto de Souza on 2020-11-09

This bug affects 2 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	ndiswrapper (Ubuntu)	Invalid	Undecided	Unassigned
	Focal	Fix Released	Medium	Kleber Sacilotto de Souza

Bug Description

[SRU Justification]

Impact: ndiswrapper-dkms modules fail to build on Focal with the linux-hwe-5.8 kernel. (see attached make.log for details).

Fix: ndiswrapper has been deprecated on Groovy and this package is not shipped anymore. This is a very old project and we don't expect the owners of modern hardware running the 5.8 kernels to ever need to load any NDIS Windows drivers in order to make their network adapter to work. Therefore, it's not worth the effort to maintain the dkms modules on Focal for the HWE kernels. In this case, the fix is to add a 'BUILD_EXCLUSIVE_KERNEL' directive to the dkms config file to build the modules only on pre-5.4 (and including) kernels.

Testcase: install the ndiswrapper-dkms package on Focal with both linux-generic 5.4 and linux-hwe-5.8. With 5.4 the modules are still built and installed, with linux-hwe-5.8 the module is not built but the package installation is still successful:

Building initial module for 5.8.0-25-generic
Error! The /var/lib/dkms/ndiswrapper/1.60/5.8.0-25-generic/x86_64/dkms.conf for module ndiswrapper includes a BUILD_EXCLUSIVE directive which
does not match this kernel/arch. This indicates that it should not be built.
Skipped.
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...
I: Package ndiswrapper-dkms excluded by BUILD_EXCLUSIVE directive, skipping
autopkgtest: DBG: testbed command exited with code 0

Regression potential: the regression potential for 5.4 kernel users is low, it would happen only if the regex is wrong in a way that would prevent the modules to be built. For users that have linux-*-hwe-20.04 currently installed, which is still a 5.4 kernel, the ndiswrapper module will stop working once the meta package switches to the 5.8 and newer kernels, however this is expected as stated under the 'Fix' section.

-----
Testing failed on:
amd64: https://objectstorage.prodstack4-5.canonical.com/v1/AUTH_77e2ada1e7a84929a74ba3b87153c0ac/autopkgtest-focal/focal/amd64/n/ndiswrapper/20201016_100835_ea657@/log.gz

See original description

Tags:

Revision history for this message

Kleber Sacilotto de Souza (kleber-souza) wrote on 2020-11-09:

make.log Edit (2.6 KiB, text/plain)

tags:	added: kernel-adt-failure
Changed in ndiswrapper (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Invalid
Changed in ndiswrapper (Ubuntu Focal):
status:	New → In Progress
importance:	Undecided → Medium
assignee:	nobody → Kleber Sacilotto de Souza (kleber-souza)
summary:	- ndiswrapper 1.60-8ubuntu2 ADT test failure with linux-hwe-5.8 - 5.8.0-25.26~20.04.1 + ndiswrapper 1.60-8ubuntu2 fails to build on Focal with linux-hwe-5.8

Kleber Sacilotto de Souza (kleber-souza) on 2020-11-10

description:

updated

Revision history for this message

Kleber Sacilotto de Souza (kleber-souza) wrote on 2020-11-10:

Debdiff for ndiswrapper 1.60-8ubuntu3 Edit (1.1 KiB, text/plain)

The proposed update adds a 'BUILD_EXCLUSIVE_KERNEL' directive to the dkms config file to build the modules only on 5.4 (including) and older kernels.

These changes have been tested as described on the 'Testcase' section of the bug description.

The source package can be found at https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~ksouza/lp1903549/, the binary build at https://launchpad.net/~kleber-souza/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+build/20273993.

Revision history for this message

Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote on 2020-11-24: Please test proposed package

Hello Kleber, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ndiswrapper into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ndiswrapper/1.60-8ubuntu3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

Changed in ndiswrapper (Ubuntu Focal):
status:	In Progress → Fix Committed
tags:	added: verification-needed verification-needed-focal

Revision history for this message

Kleber Sacilotto de Souza (kleber-souza) wrote on 2020-11-26:

I confirm that ndiswrapper 1.60-8ubuntu3 dkms module can be built and loaded successfully with linux 5.4:

$ dkms status
ndiswrapper, 1.60, 5.4.0-55-generic, x86_64: installed

And the build is skipped as expected with linux-hwe 5.8:

Setting up ndiswrapper-dkms (1.60-8ubuntu3) ...
Loading new ndiswrapper-1.60 DKMS files...
Building for 5.8.0-30-generic
Building initial module for 5.8.0-30-generic
Error! The /var/lib/dkms/ndiswrapper/1.60/5.8.0-30-generic/x86_64/dkms.conf for module ndiswrapper
includes a BUILD_EXCLUSIVE directive which
does not match this kernel/arch. This indicates that it should not be built.
Skipped.

ADT tests were also successfully with both kernels:

* linux 5.4
- amd64: https://objectstorage.prodstack4-5.canonical.com/v1/AUTH_77e2ada1e7a84929a74ba3b87153c0ac/autopkgtest-focal/focal/amd64/n/ndiswrapper/20201124_205503_43475@/log.gz

* linux-hwe-5.8
- amd64: https://objectstorage.prodstack4-5.canonical.com/v1/AUTH_77e2ada1e7a84929a74ba3b87153c0ac/autopkgtest-focal/focal/amd64/n/ndiswrapper/20201126_131959_5f56b@/log.gz

Thanks!

tags:

added: verification-done-focal
removed: verification-needed-focal

Revision history for this message

Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100) wrote on 2020-12-03: Update Released

The verification of the Stable Release Update for ndiswrapper has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2020-12-03:

This bug was fixed in the package ndiswrapper - 1.60-8ubuntu3

---------------
ndiswrapper (1.60-8ubuntu3) focal; urgency=medium

  * Prevent the build of ndiswrapper-dkms modules for kernels newer than 5.4.
    Groovy has deprecated this package, so the ndiswrapper drivers won't be
    supported on Focal with the backported HWE kernels. (LP: #1903549)

-- Kleber Sacilotto de Souza <email address hidden> Tue, 10 Nov 2020 11:01:23 +0100