I'm totally new to kernel programming, and I'm trying to write a driver for an unsupported usb webcam.

I understand that this error:
insmod: error inserting './usbgetinfo.ko': -1 Unknown symbol in module

Indicates an attempt to access a variable or function not exported by the kernel. Is there a way to figure out which variable or function that is?

Hye

do an , this will trace you what's going on while loading the driver.

So the offending function was actually posted by dmesg, as I eventually realized after I put the module into /lib/modules to use modprobe.

Problem is, it's two functions (usb_register and usb_deregister) which are extern'd in KERNELSRC/include/linux/usb/usb.h, but actually defined in KERNELSRC/drivers/usb/core/driver.c. Which for some reason is not included by usb.h, and can't be included by me.

Other in tree drivers seem to get away with just normative includes, but who knows what rules apply to them...

You might have to add
to your driver. They kernel devs implemented a DRM scheme whereby certain symbols are only available if you advertise a GPL license in your driver.

Hey wow, you actually got it. What clued me in was noticing that dmesg had explained the error ;( And stupid me for not paying attention...BUT (paltry defense) only the first time I tried to load it did I get "module license 'unspecified' taints kernel" in dmesg, and of course I didn't read dmesg! (like I said, real new to this kernel stuff) -- which is to say, I tried a few times before finally checking, chopping sections (it's only 65 lines)out and looking at objdump thinking that would help, so by the time I gathered the brains to examine /var/log/messages I didn't notice the taint warning 30 lines up.

Fortunately this is not quite the first module I've written and I eventually looked up, so that rang bells. But I'm becoming increasing afraid of this task I'm fainting already...

Thanks for your astuteness. Great sig! Can I steal it?

Don't faint now! Writing kernel drivers is a lot easier than it used to be!

My "astuteness" comes from occasionally reading the LKML. There were some interesting posts a couple of years ago related the the problem you had. And of course, they don't make it easy for you by printing anything useful from "insmod". Like you said, you have to dig through "dmesg" and "/var/log/messages" and figure out what it means to have your kernel tainted.

As far as the sig goes, steal away. The more people who wake up and realize that you can't draw meaningful conclusions from a single story, the better off our society will be.