Linux: modpost does not build anything

Question

I am having problems getting any kernel modules to build on my machine. Whenever I build a module, modpost always says there are zero modules:

MODPOST 0 modules

To troubleshoot the problem, I wrote a test module (hello.c):

#include <linux/module.h>       /* Needed by all modules */
#include <linux/kernel.h>       /* Needed for KERN_INFO */
#include <linux/init.h>         /* Needed for the macros */

static int __init hello_start(void)
{
printk(KERN_INFO "Loading hello module...\n");
printk(KERN_INFO "Hello world\n");
return 0;
}

static void __exit hello_end(void)
{
printk(KERN_INFO "Goodbye Mr.\n");
}

module_init(hello_start);
module_exit(hello_end);

Here is the Makefile for the module:

obj-m = hello.o
KVERSION = $(shell uname -r)
all:
        make -C /lib/modules/$(KVERSION)/build M=$(shell pwd) modules
clean:
        make -C /lib/modules/$(KVERSION)/build M=$(shell pwd) clean

When I build it on my machine, I get the following output:

make -C /lib/modules/2.6.32-27-generic/build M=/home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-27-generic'
  CC [M]  /home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/hello.o
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST 0 modules
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-27-generic'

When I make the module on another machine, it is successful:

make -C /lib/modules/2.6.24-27-generic/build M=/home/somedude/tmp/mod-test modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-27-generic'
  CC [M]  /home/somedude/tmp/mod-test/hello.o
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST 1 modules
  CC      /home/somedude/tmp/mod-test/hello.mod.o
  LD [M]  /home/somedude/tmp/mod-test/hello.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-27-generic'

I looked for any relevant documentation about modpost, but found little. Anyone know how modpost decides what to build? Is there an environment that I am possibly missing?

BTW here is what I am running:

uname -a
Linux waffleman-desktop 2.6.32-27-generic #49-Ubuntu SMP Wed Dec 1 23:52:12 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

---

Edit

Here is make ran with V=1:

make -C /lib/modules/2.6.32-27-generic/build M=/home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-27-generic'
test -e include/linux/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (        \
    echo;                               \
    echo "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";       \
    echo "         include/linux/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing.";  \
    echo "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it.";  \
    echo;                               \
    /bin/false)
mkdir -p /home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/.tmp_versions ; rm -f /home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/.tmp_versions/*
make -f scripts/Makefile.build obj=/home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test
  gcc -Wp,-MD,/home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/.hello.o.d  -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.4.3/include  -Iinclude  -I/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-27-generic/arch/x86/include -include include/linux/autoconf.h -Iubuntu/include  -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -Wno-format-security -fno-delete-null-pointer-checks -O2 -m32 -msoft-float -mregparm=3 -freg-struct-return -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i586 -mtune=generic -maccumulate-outgoing-args -Wa,-mtune=generic32 -ffreestanding -fstack-protector -DCONFIG_AS_CFI=1 -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SIGNAL_FRAME=1 -pipe -Wno-sign-compare -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -mno-sse -mno-mmx -mno-sse2 -mno-3dnow -Wframe-larger-than=1024 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -fno-optimize-sibling-calls -pg -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -fno-strict-overflow -fno-dwarf2-cfi-asm -fconserve-stack  -DMODULE -D"KBUILD_STR(s)=#s" -D"KBUILD_BASENAME=KBUILD_STR(hello)"  -D"KBUILD_MODNAME=KBUILD_STR(hello)"  -c -o /home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/.tmp_hello.o /home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/hello.c
  set -e ; perl /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-27-generic/scripts/recordmcount.pl "i386" "32" "objdump" "objcopy" "gcc" "ld" "nm" "" "" "1" "/home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/hello.o";
(cat /dev/null;   echo kernel//home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/hello.ko;) > /home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/modules.order
make -f /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-27-generic/scripts/Makefile.modpost
  scripts/mod/modpost -m -a -i /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-27-generic/Module.symvers -I /home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/Module.symvers  -o /home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/Module.symvers -S -w  -s
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-27-generic'
waffleman@waffleman-desktop:~/tmp/mod-test$ cat /home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/modules.order
kernel//home/waffleman/tmp/mod-test/hello.ko

Answer 1

I spent all day glued to my computer fighting this precise problem..which ended up mysteriously disappearing like for OP.

I can at least offer this meager detail from my experience: I was getting the same output as OP (for make V=1) and putting print statements in ${kernel_directory}/scripts/makefile.build showed that obj-m was strangely NOT being set after including my makefile, even though it was clearly typed as above.

I did a bunch of fooling around with the line "obj-m += hello.o" and the ones around it. Eventually it magically worked..although it looked exactly the same as before in the end. Maybe I had copied those lines from a tutorial online and it contained some sort of invalid/incorrect character?

For anyone experiencing this, verify that obj-m is in fact getting set to hello.o
If it mysteriously isn't, delete the line, hell the whole Makefile, and retype it.

I know that's not much help; I wish I could reproduce what happened!