DKMS and Compiler Permissions [Solved]

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harbinger27
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DKMS and Compiler Permissions [Solved]

Post by harbinger27 »

[Solved - compiler permissions were wrong]

Sometimes when updating to a new kernel, the installation flags DKMS failures for wireguard, nvidia drivers, and virtualbox; after which none of them work.

There is also an error message for each application, "Please make sure you have your Linux distribution's gcc and libc development packages installed" and points me to a make.log that usually refers back to DKMS problems, but I don't know if that's the cause or just a side effect of DKMS issues. Just in case, I reinstalled build-essential but that doesn't seem to fix the issue.

I see others have this same problem in one way or another, but I can't find a concrete solution. Is there something I'm missing in terms of getting DKMS to work properly with kernel updates? Any tips or pointers in the right direction will be appreciated.

System: Linux Mint 20.3 64-bit Cinnamon
Kernel: 5.4.0-107
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SMG
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Re: DKMS: Wireguard, Nvidia, VirtualBox

Post by SMG »

harbinger27 wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 1:04 amSystem: Linux Mint 20.3 64-bit Cinnamon
Kernel: 5.4.0-107
DKMS is a fundamental part of the system and nothing special needs to be installed for it to work.

Please give us information about your install by entering this command in a terminal:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code tags and paste the results of the command between the code tags [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.
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harbinger27
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Re: DKMS: Wireguard, Nvidia, VirtualBox

Post by harbinger27 »

This is embarrassing, but after a little investigating, I am near certain the problem is I altered my compilers' permissions poorly such that they only have read rights (chmod 0444) causing DKMS build failures during the kernel update.

Affected compilers are:
as
g++
gcc
g++-6
gcc-6

I tried reinstalling build-essentials but that doesn't revert the permissions.

Can anyone tell me what the default chmod permissions code set should be for these compilers? They can also be determined here (https://chmodcommand.com/chmod-0444/) but I probably should get someone else's input about the right permissions to set. Thank you!
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SMG
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Re: DKMS: Wireguard, Nvidia, VirtualBox

Post by SMG »

harbinger27 wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 12:24 pm This is embarrassing, but after a little investigating, I am near certain the problem is I altered my compilers' permissions poorly such that they only have read rights (chmod 0444) causing DKMS build failures during the kernel update.
Do you have a Timeshift snapshot of your system before you made these changes? Reverting to it would be the easiest way to accomplish this change.

I do not know why someone would change the permissions of a compiler so I can not help with your question. Maybe someone else can.
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harbinger27
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Re: DKMS and Compiler Permissions

Post by harbinger27 »

I can confirm that the issue no longer exists if the compilers' permissions are changed to chmod 744 from chmod 0444. I'm not sure if 744 (rwx) is the most optimal, but good enough!

Thanks for the thought, SMG - I have Timeshift snapshots but the permission changes predate my earliest snapshot.

Changing the permissions was part of a larger set of security recommendations from a reliable source. I normally don't integrate recommendations around things I'm unfamiliar with like compilers, but I figured I don't compile programs from source so didn't think changing the permissions would have any negative impact on my normal system functioning. Wrong!
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