Using akmods

1. Install livna's yum repo, if it is not already installed.

2. Determine which pre-built kmods you already have installed, if any. It's important to note that the livna-built kmods in the livna repo will take precedence over your locally-built akmods for the same kernel version, because the "lvn9" tag is "newer" than "fc9" in the package name comparison. All this really means is that for official kernel releases, livna's kmods will eventually update your akmod kmods as soon as they're available, so your akmod only served to fill in the gap while it was unavailable, but for custom kernels, where no livna kmod will ever be available, your akmod kmod will always reign supreme.

   (So, it's pointless to remove "kmod-nvidia" and then install "akmod-nvidia", because a subsequent yum update will eventually update your locally-built "kmod-nvidia-kernelversion" to livna's version and bring in the kmod-nvidia meta-package dependency as well.)

   [root@f9-64vm1 ~]# rpm -qa kmod-\*
   kmod-nvidia-173.14.09-2.lvn9.x86_64
   kmod-nvidia-2.6.25.9-76.fc9.x86_64-173.14.09-2.lvn9.x86_64
   

3. Determine the available akmod kernel modules you want to use. For this howto, we'll be using the nvidia kmod for example:

   [root@f9-64vm1 ~]# yum list akmod-\*
   akmod-em8300.x86_64                      0.17.0-0.3.rc1         livna
   akmod-gspca.x86_64                       1.00.20-10.lvn9        livna
   akmod-iscsitarget.x86_64                 1:0.4.15-31.svn147.lvn livna
   akmod-kqemu.x86_64                       1.3.0-0.32.lvn9        livna
   akmod-madwifi.x86_64                     0.9.4-32.lvn9          livna
   akmod-ndiswrapper.x86_64                 1.52-31.lvn9           livna
   akmod-nvidia.x86_64                      173.14.09-2.lvn9       livna
   akmod-qc-usb.x86_64                      0.6.6-31.lvn9          livna

4. Install the akmod. The first time you install an akmod it will also install the dependencies necessary to build and manage them (kmodtool and akmods from livna; the rest from fedora):

   [root@f9-64vm1 ~]# yum install akmod-nvidia
   ...
   =============================================================================
    Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size 
   =============================================================================
   Installing:
    akmod-nvidia            x86_64     173.14.09-2.lvn9  livna             4.8 M
   Installing for dependencies:
    akmods                  noarch     0.3.1-1.lvn9     livna              14 k
    elfutils                x86_64     0.133-3.fc9      fedora            214 k
    elfutils-libs           x86_64     0.133-3.fc9      fedora            173 k
    fakeroot                x86_64     1.6.4-16.fc9     fedora             76 k
    gcc                     x86_64     4.3.0-8          fedora             10 M
    gcc-c++                 x86_64     4.3.0-8          fedora            4.3 M
    glibc-devel             x86_64     2.8-3            fedora            2.5 M
    glibc-headers           x86_64     2.8-3            fedora            602 k
    kernel-devel            x86_64     2.6.25.9-76.fc9  updates           5.2 M
    kernel-headers          x86_64     2.6.25.9-76.fc9  updates           718 k
    kmodtool                noarch     1-11.lvn9        livna              11 k
    libstdc++-devel         x86_64     4.3.0-8          fedora            3.8 M
    redhat-rpm-config       noarch     9.0.2-1.fc9      fedora             54 k
    rpm-build               x86_64     4.4.2.3-2.fc9    fedora            306 k
    rpmdevtools             noarch     6.6-1.fc9        fedora             71 k
   
   Transaction Summary
   =============================================================================
   Install     16 Package(s)         
   Update       0 Package(s)         
   Remove       0 Package(s)         
   
   Total download size: 33 M
   Is this ok [y/N]: y
   

5. Normally, your akmods are automatically rebuilt into kmods when you 1) install a NEW kernel for which no kmod yet exists, or 2) reboot into an old kernel for which no kmod yet exists, or 3) reboot and there's an updated akmod version to be rebuilt for the same (or newer) kernel version.

   You can either reboot now to have the kmod rebuilt by the "akmods" service scripts, or, you can force it to rebuild now:

   [root@f9-64vm1 ~]# service akmods restart
   Checking kmods exist for 2.6.25.9-76.fc9.x86_64            [WARNING]
   Building and installing nvidia-kmod                        [  OK  ]
   

   The "[WARNING]" is to inform you that the kmod doesn't exist, so it's being rebuilt and installed. It should take less than a minute to build on decent hardware. If it just says "[OK]" then you either already have the livna kmod installed, or have already rebuilt the akmod previously. If it says "[FAILED]", then something went horribly wrong, but the first thing to check is that you have also installed "kernel-devel".

   To verify that your kmod was built and installed locally, check the rpm info. "Build Host" should match your hostname, not livna's; the "Release" should say "fc9", not "lvn9", and the "Build Date" should be very recent:

   [root@f9-64vm1 ~]# rpm -qa kmod-nvidia\*
   kmod-nvidia-2.6.25.9-76.fc9.x86_64-173.14.09-2.fc9.x86_64
   [root@f9-64vm1 ~]# rpm -qai kmod-nvidia\*76\*
   Name        : kmod-nvidia-2.6.25.9-76.fc9.x86_64  Relocations: (not relocatable)
   Version     : 173.14.09                         Vendor: (none)
   Release     : 2.fc9                         Build Date: Wed 02 Jul 2008 10:26:38 AM EDT
   Install Date: Wed 02 Jul 2008 10:26:49 AM EDT      Build Host: f9-64vm1
   Group       : System Environment/Kernel     Source RPM: nvidia-kmod-173.14.09-2.fc9.src.rpm
   Size        : 10318720                         License: Redistributable, no modification permitted
   Signature   : (none)
   URL         : http://www.nvidia.com/
   Summary     : nvidia kernel module(s) for 2.6.25.9-76.fc9.x86_64
   Description :
   This package provides the nvidia kernel modules built for the Linux
   kernel 2.6.25.9-76.fc9.x86_64 for the x86_64 family of processors.

That's it. Leave it on autopilot. No more kmod headaches.