Github Actions or readme update on build for drivers

[elibosley]

Hi Christoph,

We need documentation on Building the unraid-dvb driver to allow our team to move to a Github action that can build this driver.

Ideally we have the full Github Actions pipeline built out as part of this, alternatively just update the readme.md with instructions on building - this is needed to help facilitate our team maintaining this driver

[ich777]

Hi Eli,

that should be totally doable but would possibly involve creating an additional repository (like this one here) that includes a pre-compiled Kernel (or at least the Headers), however I would recommend to store the whole Kernel since for example for the DVB drivers you need to compile in tree modules which are not in Unraid itself <- these modules can't be built into Unraid itself because it would break other DVB packages.

If possible it would be ideal to build the Kernel and all drivers in one go like I do it currently since this would simplify things a lot and upload everything to the correct repositories.

I layout the build process in short terms and very simplified which I'm currently using:

1. Check the releases API for new releases every 15 minutes
2. When a new release is found trigger a build which then involves:
   2.1 Starting the build Unraid VM
   2.2 Make sure the VM is on the same version as the new release
   2.3 Start the build on the VM in a Docker container
   2.4 Compile the Kernel (and upload it to the linked repository above)
   2.5 Compile the drivers one by one
   2.6 Shutdown the build VM

Everything above is managed through Jenkins.

Reason for the VM is that I like to have a clean build environment and for the Docker container to not have to install all dependencies each time a new build is released to Unraid.

The basic build steps are also included in the repositories in the source directory, which of course can be more documented.

Another thing to consider is the 3rd party driver upgrade helper script which is currently included in the driver plugins.
What this does is, it basically watches /boot/changes.txt (through inotifywait), if there is a change it will automatically run the script which sends a Unraid notification, scans for installed drivers by searching for known plugins and then downloads the drivers for the newer Kernel version ahead of reboot.
You can see a quick demo here.

I assume since you have scripts internally in place for builds and so on a lot can be simplified.

@ljm42 I'll add you here to keep you in the loop.