Time consumung: installing and updating new software or kernels..? [Solved]

[carsti]

Hi,

I come from the Ubuntu/Linux Mint side of things. When I install/update software or kernels, it is downloaded and installed. With MX there was always a VERY time consuming compilation step. I did run it on a slow Chromebook with limited HDD space and it took forever and needed a lot of free disk space.

Is this process different from Ubuntu/Mint? Why? Why is there a compilation step? Or did I do something wrong?

[Eadwine Rose]

Kernels can be found in MX Package Installer. It installs them for you.

[dolphin_oracle]

we ship some drivers that are dkms packages. broadcom and realtek drivers. if you don't need them, remove them. the dkms rebuilds should only be happening on kernel updates, unless you have some incomplete update that previously occurred and some dkms package failed to build or install fully. apt/dpkg will keep trying until it succeeds every time you install/remove anything.

[carsti]

we ship some drivers that are dkms packages. broadcom and realtek drivers. if you don't need them, remove them. the dkms rebuilds should only be happening on kernel updates, unless you have some incomplete update that previously occurred and some dkms package failed to build or install fully. apt/dpkg will keep trying until it succeeds every time you install/remove anything.

Thanks. I think I need those drivers. I just remember that I needed to do those Kernel updates quite often and it really sucked because of the compilation process. I went back to Mint Xfce and it worked like a charm.

[kmathern]

we ship some drivers that are dkms packages. broadcom and realtek drivers. if you don't need them, remove them. the dkms rebuilds should only be happening on kernel updates, unless you have some incomplete update that previously occurred and some dkms package failed to build or install fully. apt/dpkg will keep trying until it succeeds every time you install/remove anything.

Thanks. I think I need those drivers. I just remember that I needed to do those Kernel updates quite often and it really sucked because of the compilation process. I went back to Mint Xfce and it worked like a charm.

MX 23 comes with four dkms wifi drivers preinstalled (broadcom-sta-dkms, rtl8812au-dkms, rtl8821ce-dkms, rtl8821cu-dkms). You might need one of them for your wifi to work, but It's unlikely you need all of them. Removing the unused ones would speed up the compilation time.

Posting a QSI for your machine would let people here know which dkms driver you're using. And it might show that you aren't using any of them, in which case you could remove all of the dkms wifi drivers.

[carsti]

we ship some drivers that are dkms packages. broadcom and realtek drivers. if you don't need them, remove them. the dkms rebuilds should only be happening on kernel updates, unless you have some incomplete update that previously occurred and some dkms package failed to build or install fully. apt/dpkg will keep trying until it succeeds every time you install/remove anything.

Thanks. I think I need those drivers. I just remember that I needed to do those Kernel updates quite often and it really sucked because of the compilation process. I went back to Mint Xfce and it worked like a charm.

MX 23 comes with four dkms wifi drivers preinstalled (broadcom-sta-dkms, rtl8812au-dkms, rtl8821ce-dkms, rtl8821cu-dkms). You might need one of them for your wifi to work, but It's unlikely you need all of them. Removing the unused ones would speed up the compilation time.

Posting a QSI for your machine would let people here know which dkms driver you're using. And it might show that you aren't using any of them, in which case you could remove all of the dkms wifi drivers.

Thanks.

How is Ubuntu or Mini handling this without compilation?

I don't use that machine anymore. I just wanted to do a fresh install with the latest MX on a machine that does not need any of these drivers. Are they still aded and compiled every time?

[Charlie Brown]

On that machine you can simply remove them with "MX Package Installer" or a "radical" one:

Code: Select all

sudo apt purge broadc*dkms rtl88*dkms -y

Will scrape them all.
_____________________

They are just to make those devices work ootb also to go on working when a new kernel is installed (either manually by you or auto-updated default kernel). Hence "dkms".

[timkb4cq]

If this is the same machine from your liva post then you don't need any of the realtek or broadcom dkms packages. You have Intel wireless hardware.

[DukeComposed]

On that machine you can simply remove them with "MX Package Installer" or a "radical" one:

Code: Select all

sudo apt purge broadc*dkms rtl88*dkms -y

Will scrape them all.

I ran

Code: Select all

dpkg -l | grep "\-dkms"

and then just did a

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg -r broadcom-sta-dkms rtl8812au-dkms rtl8821ce-dkms rtl8821cu-dkms

using the names of the packages that had the "ii" state. Your method is much more succinct, albeit hard to remember.

I'm glad someone finally asked this question. Rebuilding those DKMS modules every time I test a new kernel has been annoying me for ages.

[dolphin_oracle]

Thanks. I think I need those drivers. I just remember that I needed to do those Kernel updates quite often and it really sucked because of the compilation process. I went back to Mint Xfce and it worked like a charm.

MX 23 comes with four dkms wifi drivers preinstalled (broadcom-sta-dkms, rtl8812au-dkms, rtl8821ce-dkms, rtl8821cu-dkms). You might need one of them for your wifi to work, but It's unlikely you need all of them. Removing the unused ones would speed up the compilation time.

Posting a QSI for your machine would let people here know which dkms driver you're using. And it might show that you aren't using any of them, in which case you could remove all of the dkms wifi drivers.

Thanks.

How is Ubuntu or Mini handling this without compilation?

I don't use that machine anymore. I just wanted to do a fresh install with the latest MX on a machine that does not need any of these drivers. Are they still aded and compiled every time?

ubuntu doesn't ship the drivers, leaving it to the user to compile them on their own if they are needed.