Hi,
I have a Debian testing system with a Realtek 8852be wireless card.
As the kernel in Debian testing does not currently support this
hardware, I have to build the kernel driver as an external DKMS
module from:
https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw89
Specifically that is the rtw_8852be module.
That works fine, but it seems that this driver actually is present
in upstream kernel versions somewhere in v6.1.x.
As far as I understand, as the upstream kernel does have this driver
from some point in 6.1.x, then at some point a kernel upgrade on
this system is going to end up trying to build and install a DKMS
module that already exists in the kernel it has just installed.
What is the correct procedure for transitioning between the DKMS
module and the one inside the new kernel package, when the time
comes?
How can I stop DKMS from building the rtw89 driver on a particular
new kernel version without removing it all from the kernel I'll be
using at the point of install?
As the device is a laptop and its only form of networking is by
wifi, it would be rather inconvenient if the wifi stopped working in
the middle of an upgrade. If that does happen to occur though I can
get out of the pickle by using USB tethering to my phone. Still, I'd
rather avoid it.
Will uninstalling the rtw89-dkms package unload the modules from the
currently-running kernel immediately? If not then I suppose the
correct way, upon seeing that a new kernel package containing the
driver is to be installed, would be to uninstall rtw89-dkms first.
That way the hooks from the rtw89-dkms package would not be called
when the new kernel package is installed.
That might then have the disadvantage that if my next boot is not
into the new kernel then there will no longer be an rtw_8852be
module and so no networking. I will keep the checkout of the driver
locally though, and I already installed it once so can do so again
if need be.
Thoughts?
I do not think there is a kernel package available in any version of
Debian right now that has this driver since:
$ apt-file search rtw89_8852be
returns nothing whereas for example:
$ apt-file search rtw89_8852a
does have results in the latest kernel packages.
Compare also:
https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=rtw89_8852a&literal=1
vs.:
https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=rtw89_8852be&literal=1
I know I could get ahead of the game by building an upstream kernel
package but to be honest I'd rather just consume Debian package
updates plus a DKMS until it's included.
Thanks,
Andy
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