Can't get ixgbevf to build on current Ubuntu AMI

Question

AWS docs state that you need to build the source to get enhanced networking enabled for Ubuntu AMIs: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/sriov-networking.html#enhanced-networking-ubuntu

The current AMI for us-west-2 xenial, ami-835b4efa, fails with: Building module: cleaning build area.... cd src/; make BUILD_KERNEL=4.4.0-1020-aws....(bad exit status: 2) ERROR (dkms apport): binary package for ixgbevf: 3.1.2 not found Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 4.4.0-1020-aws (x86_64) Consult /var/lib/dkms/ixgbevf/3.1.2/build/make.log for more information.

Answer 1

This is a problem with the AWS kernel naming convetion.

Looking at the log file:

root@ip-10-16-80-225:/home/ubuntu# cat /var/lib/dkms/ixgbevf/3.1.2/build/make.log
DKMS make.log for ixgbevf-3.1.2 for kernel 4.4.0-1020-aws (x86_64)
Wed Jun 28 15:34:22 PDT 2017
make -C /lib/modules/4.4.0-1020-aws/build SUBDIRS=/var/lib/dkms/ixgbevf/3.1.2/build/src modules
make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-4.4.0-1020-aws'
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/ixgbevf/3.1.2/build/src/ixgbevf_main.o
In file included from /var/lib/dkms/ixgbevf/3.1.2/build/src/ixgbevf.h:41:0,
                 from /var/lib/dkms/ixgbevf/3.1.2/build/src/ixgbevf_main.c:53:
/var/lib/dkms/ixgbevf/3.1.2/build/src/kcompat.h:755:2: error: #error UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI is too large...
 #error UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI is too large...
  ^
scripts/Makefile.build:258: recipe for target '/var/lib/dkms/ixgbevf/3.1.2/build/src/ixgbevf_main.o' failed

it's complaining about UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI

Ubuntu kernel docs state that the kernel version's 4th number is the ABI, https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/BuildSystem/ABI, but the current AWS kernel version is: Linux ip-10-16-89-81 4.4.0-1020-aws

Looking at the offending code in /usr/src/ixgbevf/src/kcompat.h:

#if UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI > 255
#error UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI is too large...
#endif /* UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI > 255 */

one can see this won't fly, 1020 being > than 255

Here's a script that I use as a custom package postinst to fix this. This script can also be run directly from a shell if you have the source tgz from here https://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000/files/ixgbevf%20stable/3.1.2/ in ~/

%> cat src/deb/control/postinst
#!/bin/bash -e
[ "${DEBUG}" ] && set -x
cd ~/ixgbevf
ver="3.1.2"
tar -xzf ~/ixgbevf-${ver}.tar.gz
rm -rf /usr/src/ixgbevf-${ver}
mv ixgbevf-${ver} /usr/src/
touch /usr/src/ixgbevf-${ver}/dkms.conf
kernelver=$(uname -r)
cat <<-EOT > /usr/src/ixgbevf-${ver}/dkms.conf
PACKAGE_NAME="ixgbevf"
PACKAGE_VERSION="${ver}"
CLEAN="cd src/; make clean"
MAKE="cd src/; make BUILD_KERNEL=\${kernelver}"
BUILT_MODULE_LOCATION[0]="src/"
BUILT_MODULE_NAME[0]="ixgbevf"
DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[0]="/updates"
DEST_MODULE_NAME[0]="ixgbevf"
AUTOINSTALL="yes"
EOT
# Hack for /usr/src/ixgbevf-3.1.2/src/kcompat.h:755:2: error: #error UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI is too large...
# #if UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI > 255
#
sed -i 's/#if UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI > 255/#if UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI > 99255/' /usr/src/ixgbevf-${ver}/src/kcompat.h
dkms remove ixgbevf -v ${ver} --all 2>/dev/null || true
dkms add -m ixgbevf -v ${ver}
dkms build -m ixgbevf -v ${ver}
dkms install -m ixgbevf --all
dkms autoinstall -m ixgbevf
update-initramfs -c -k all
modinfo ixgbevf

I've notified AWS of this, but in the interim, hopefully this will save someone else the WTF moment of 'this is not what I wanted to do today'

Edit:

Got a followup from AWS - They are pushing this out to the Intel driver support team. It's the driver's check that's assuming the ABI < 255 that is broken, not the AWS kernel versioning scheme.

Answer 2

The workaround to this problem is to disable this checking by running the following command:

$ sudo sed -i '/#if UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI > 255/c\/*#if UTS_UBUNTU_RELEASE_ABI > 255' /usr/src/ixgbevf-2.16.4/src/kcompat.h