[arch-general] dkms remove

[Ralf Mardorf]

When upgrading

[root at archlinux rocketmouse]# grep 5.0.14-4 /var/log/pacman.log 
[2016-03-07 10:48] [ALPM] upgraded virtualbox-host-dkms (5.0.14-1 -> 5.0.14-4)
[2016-03-07 10:49] [ALPM] upgraded virtualbox (5.0.14-1 -> 5.0.14-4)

automatically the modules for all installed kernels were build.

[root at archlinux rocketmouse]# pacman -Q linux linux-rt linux-rt-lts
linux 4.4.3-1
linux-rt 4.0.4_rt1-1
linux-rt-lts 3.10.61_rt65-1
[root at archlinux rocketmouse]# ls -Ggh /var/lib/dkms/vboxhost/
total 8.0K
drwxr-xr-x 5 4.0K Mar  7 10:47 5.0.14
drwxr-xr-x 5 4.0K Mar  7 10:53 5.0.14_OSE
lrwxrwxrwx 1   35 Jan 27 12:22 kernel-3.10.61-rt65-1-rt-lts-x66_64 -> 5.0.14/3.10.61-rt65-1-rt-lts/x66_64
lrwxrwxrwx 1   39 Mar  7 10:50 kernel-3.10.61-rt65-1-rt-lts-x86_64 -> 5.0.14_OSE/3.10.61-rt65-1-rt-lts/x86_64
lrwxrwxrwx 1   32 Mar  7 10:52 kernel-4.0.4-rt1-1-rt-x86_64 -> 5.0.14_OSE/4.0.4-rt1-1-rt/x86_64
lrwxrwxrwx 1   26 Jan 27 12:19 kernel-4.3.3-3-ARCH-x86_64 -> 5.0.14/4.3.3-3-ARCH/x86_64
lrwxrwxrwx 1   26 Feb  3 08:08 kernel-4.4.1-1-ARCH-x86_64 -> 5.0.14/4.4.1-1-ARCH/x86_64
lrwxrwxrwx 1   30 Mar  7 10:53 kernel-4.4.3-1-ARCH-x86_64 -> 5.0.14_OSE/4.4.3-1-ARCH/x86_64

however, I want to get rid of the unneeded modules in /lib/modules and
I want to get rid of the dkms directory and links that belong to 5.0.14.

I expected that 'dkms remove -m vboxhost -v 5.0.14 --all' would remove
all 5.0.14 modules. IIRC it worked _after_ an upgrade, when I removed
modules in the past. I can't remember that I removed old modules
_before_ I upgraded.

[root at archlinux rocketmouse]# dkms remove -m vboxhost -v 5.0.14 --all
Error! Could not locate dkms.conf file.
File:  does not exist.

Sure, the new config is available, just the old isn't.

[root at archlinux rocketmouse]# ls -Ggh /usr/src/vboxhost*/dkms.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 1.1K Mar  4 22:50 /usr/src/vboxhost-5.0.14_OSE/dkms.conf

Am I mistaken, is there the need to remove old modules before upgrading
when using 'dkms remove' or did something change and it was possible
in the past?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dynamic_Kernel_Module_Support#Remove_modules
only mentions that after removing the package 'dkms' the required
information to remove kernel modules gets lost.

If I use the browser's find option to search "remove", I don't find
information about removing old modules using 'dkms remove' here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VirtualBox

I'm aware the 'rm -r' and 'unlink' could be used either, it's just a
surprise that 'dkms remove' doesn't work. Perhaps I'm mistaken and I
used 'dkms remove' in the past before I upgraded.

Regards,
Ralf