[TriLUG] Installing kernel module -- missing headers/broken symlink

[Steven Hilton]

I'm trying to intall the USB Quickcam Video Camera driver, online at 
http://qce-ga.sourceforge.net. The READE is pretty straightforward, but
I think there may be something wrong with my installation.

I'm running RH 7.2. I do not know C. I know very little about "kernel
stuff" :-)

Running make on the driver makefile bombs out early, reporting:

quickcam.c:1:12: /lib/modules/2.4.9-21/build/include/linux/config.h: No
such file or directory

which is true enough.

I find that the "build" part that path is a broken symlink on my system:


[root at jefferson 2.4.9-21]# pwd
/lib/modules/2.4.9-21
[root at jefferson 2.4.9-21]# ls -al
total 248
drwxr-xr-x    4 root     root         4096 Mar 12  2002 .
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root         4096 Feb 22  2002 ..
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           31 Feb  7  2002 build ->
../../../usr/src/linux-2.4.9-21
[...]

There is no 'linux.*' directory under /usr/src.

However, there *is* a '/usr/include/linux' directory, and it has all the
needed kernal header files. Looks like, anyway.

So my question is two-fold:
1) Why would the /usr/src/linux* directories be missing?
and 
2) Can I just do this to solve my problem?

cd /lib/modules/2.4.9-21
ln -f -s /usr/include/linux/ build

Or would that be a Bad Idea? 
Barring that, what is the preferable course of action? 

I also tried to intall the alsa sound drivers recenly, and IIRC it
failed to install for the same reasons.

Thanks for any input.


-- 
Steven Hilton <mshiltonj at libertystorm.com>