which packages to install to compile kernel modules?

[sktsee]

On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:49:28 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:

[snip]

> 
>   ok, so one more question (ok, two).  first, what's the command to
> display the actual packages that a metapackage represents?

A metapackage is a real package in that it conforms to the requirements 
outlined in the Debian Policy Manual, but instead of installing binary 
apps and libraries, documents, source code, or data files, it's sole 
purpose is to create a list of dependencies to other packages that, when 
grouped together, provide a solution to achieve a particular task, like, 
say, a minimal build environment for kernel module compilation. As it is 
a "real" package, you can simply check it's dependencies to see what 
other packages it will pull in.

$ apt-cache depends build-essential
build-essential
 |Depends: libc6-dev
  Depends: <libc-dev>
    libc6-dev
  Depends: g++
  Depends: make
  Depends: dpkg-dev

> 
>   and second, i can see on this system that there are two /usr/src
> directories that correspond to my running kernel:
> 
> drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 2010-06-05 09:04 linux-headers-2.6.32-22
> drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 2010-06-05 09:05
> linux-headers-2.6.32-22-generic
> 
>   so what's the rationale behind having *two* /usr/src directories per
> kernel?  (i come from a fedora background where there was only one.)
> 
>   does the "generic" suffix mean architecture independent?  what's the
> distinguishing feature by which some headers are placed in one subdir
> but not the other?  thanks.

I'm not sure. It appears that linux-headers-2.6.32-22 contains the full 
on kernel headers for all architectures and drivers, while linux-
headers-2.6.32-22-generic selectively links to files and directories that 
are specific for building modules for the "generic" kernel. I supposed 
this is mostly a housekeeping feature to allow compilation of modules for 
different kernel flavors on the same machine. Just a guess, though.

[snip]

-- 
sktsee