Linux DKMS for Dektec device drivers

About Dektec device drivers

Dektec is a manufacturer of PC add-on cards, USB devices, IP converters and software for the professional digital-television market. Their products are used for test and measurement and to build broadcast infrastructure.

Dektec provides device drivers for Windows and Linux. See their comprehensive download page.

On Windows, WinSDK, the SDK and device drivers package, is a standard binary installer which properly installs and configures the DTAPI and the device drivers. There is nothing to add.

On Linux, on the other hand, the device drivers are provided in source form only, as part of the LinuxSDK package. On lab or production systems where the kernel can be periodically updated, dealing with drivers in source form is not very handy. Most Linux distros have an answer for this: DKMS, Dynamic Kernel Module Support. The source code of the drivers are installed in /usr/src and the drivers are automatically recompiled and reinstalled in case of kernel update.

This project proposes scripts to create installable DKMS packages for Dektec device drivers on most Linux distros. Installers can be created for Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora (.rpm) or Ubuntu (.deb).

This project contains build scripts only. No original Dektec software is provided here. The build scripts automatically download the original LinuxSDK from the Dektec Web site prior to build the packages.

Disclaimer: The owner of this project is not and has never been affiliated to DekTec Digital Video B.V. but is a long-time user of Dektec products, both on Windows and Linux systems.

Version identification

Currently, there are different device drivers in the LinuxSDK package named Dta, DtaNw, Dtu, DtPcie0, DtPcieNw. Each driver has a distinct version number. It is not possible to provide three different DKMS packages since these drivers interact with each other in the kernel (at least Dta and DtaNw) and contain common code. It is important that a consistent combination of drivers is provided. To enforce this consistency, all three drivers are provided into one single DKMS package.

For each version of the LinuxSDK package, we produce one DKMS package using the same version number as the LinuxSDK package.

License

The build scripts in this project are released under the terms of the license which is commonly referred to as "BSD 2-Clause License" or "Simplified BSD License" or "FreeBSD License".

All Dektec software, including the drivers, are currently released under the same BSD 2-Clause License. See the file named "License" in the LinuxSDK package. The Dektec license file is included in the DKMS packages to comply with the terms of this license.

Build

Simply run the provided script:

build-dektec-dkms

The generated package is created in the subdirectory packages. On Fedora, Red Hat Entreprise Linux, CentOS and other clones, the package is a .rpm file. On Ubuntu systems, the package is a .deb file.

Complete documentation of the build script

Build the Linux DKMS package for Dektec device drivers. The type of package
depends on the underlying operating system.

Usage: build-dektec-dkms [options]

Options:

  -c
  --clean
      Do not build anything, just cleanup downloaded and temporary files.

  -d
  --download
      Only download and expand the Dektec LinuxSDK. Do not build DKMS packages.

  -h
  --help
      Display this help text.

  -f
  --force
      Force a download of the Dektec LinuxSDK, even if it is already present.
      This makes sure that the latest version is used.

  --install
      Directly install Dektec DKMS on the current system. Do not create a
      package. This is useful on unsupported systems (no .rpm, no .deb).

  -k
  --keep
      Keep temporary files. By default, they are deleted.

  -l
  --load-drivers
      Do not build anything, just load all installed Dektec drivers and
      test the load.

  -p
  --prepare
      Only prepare the DKMS file structure in the temporary directory.
      Do not build DKMS packages, do not clean up files.

  -t
  --test-package
      After building the package, install it, load the drivers, uninstall
      the package.

  --uninstall
      Directly uninstall Dektec DKMS from the current system. Do not properly
      uninstall a package. This is useful on unsupported systems (no .rpm,
      no .deb).

  -u "url"
  --url "url"
     URL of the Dektec LinuxSDK. Default:
     http://www.dektec.com/products/SDK/DTAPI/Downloads/LinuxSDK.tar.gz

  -v
  --verbose
      Display verbose information.