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It appears that the kernel-level code is shipped as source to be built, automatically by dkms, by the end user. Check out the list of binaries on the bottom lef
by dmm 10y ago
It appears that the kernel-level code is shipped as source to be built, automatically by dkms, by the end user. Check out the list of binaries on the bottom left of that page.
This means that no binary kernel modules are shipped, just the cli tools.
- creshal 10y agoWhich is roughly the same way as closed-source drivers are handled.
- jcoffland 10y agoNot really. Closed source drivers don't come with source code and aren't compiled by dkms.
- GauntletWizard 10y agoThe Nvidia driver does require DKMS, but it's still a binary blob - It ships with source for a wrapper, compiles that, and that loads the blob.
- ryao 10y agoDKMS is for out of tree drivers. Closed source drivers being out of tree can of course use it too.
- derefr 10y agoReminds me of the open-vm-tools package that hooks up Ubuntu guests to VMware. VMware ships with its own copies that it can mount as ISOs, but having the alternate FOSS version be managed and versioned and regression-tested by the distro maintainers makes everything a lot smoother (and means you don't have to wait for a VMware update to ship before you can update your kernel.)