Question about the recent kenel updates

[diablo75]

I caught wind of recent security patches to the Kernel while browsing digg earlier today. The article it linked to can be found here:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Newly-Discovered-Kernel-Vulnerabilities-Affect-All-Ubuntu-Users-98864.shtml

I've already update, and am not concerned with it much. But I have a question about the very last paragraph in the article:


Due to an unavoidable ABI change, the kernel packages have a new version number, which will force you to reinstall or recompile all third-party kernel modules you might have installed.

I've seen first hand that I've had to recompile my Virtualbox kernel headers. But I was wondering what it means by "unavoidable ABI change". What does that mean? Will I have to worry about recompiling kernel headers again in the future. Or will the DKMS package take care of that for me (as I had originally expected it to in this instance before reading that in the article).

Edit: Sorry... Meant to spell the word KERNEL updates in the title. If you're a mod can you change that please?

[sefs]

Interesting....

As a general rule i usually reinstall all the programs on my system anytime i see a kernel update coming down. Which would be vmware, truecrypt and serial monkey drivers...

I thought dell had some tech in ubuntu that made this unnecessary.

[diablo75]

I thought dell had some tech in ubuntu that made this unnecessary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Kernel_Module_Support

And I have it installed. But this time around it did not serve it's intended purpose.

[bruce89]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Kernel_Module_Support

And I have it installed. But this time around it did not serve it's intended purpose.

Some things use it, and others don't. Look at the rdepends of dkms:


bruce@Scooby-Dum:~$ apt-cache rdepends dkms
dkms
Reverse Depends:
nvidia-177-kernel-source
nvidia-173-kernel-source
fglrx-kernel-source
nvidia-96-kernel-source
lirc-modules-source
virtualbox-ose-source
virtualbox-ose-guest-source
lirc-modules-source
kvm-source
kqemu-source
nvidia-96-kernel-source
nvidia-71-kernel-source
nvidia-177-kernel-source
nvidia-173-kernel-source
fglrx-kernel-source

[diablo75]

Some things use it, and others don't. Look at the rdepends of dkms:

Ahhh, so the OSE version of Virtualbox makes use of it, but not the proprietary version... is that right?

[FuturePilot]

Ahhh, so the OSE version of Virtualbox makes use of it, but not the proprietary version... is that right?

If I remember correctly the PUEL version also makes use of DKMS.