CentOS

I am installing some software on a CentOS 6.0 system. I am very new to Linux.

The installation instructions for the software I am adding to my system recommend that I install DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) before I install the software. Is this actually not needed on a CentOS system because CentOS already uses the RPM (Red Hat Package Management) system with Yum as a front end to it? Or is using DKMS still a good idea because parts of this software i am installing will be building and upgrading kernel modules?

Finally, when I issue the command 'yum install dkms', I get "No package dkms available. Error: Nothing to do." I thought that maybe I was getting that error because I was not yet configured to use the Yum server, but when I look in /etc/yum.repos.d, I can see the three files CentOS-Base.repo, CentOS-Debuginfo.repo, and CentOS-Media.repo, so I think it is all set up. Is it possible that in order to get the DKMS application, I will first need to set up a fourth repository?

SUMMARY OF QUESTIONS
Because CentOS already has RPM, is it unnecessary for me to install DKMS? (Remember that I want to have kernel update support.)
Even if it is unnecessary for me to install DKMS, I was having trouble trying to install it, so how do I get this to install? Do I need to set up some other repositories?

Perhaps it might be better to take a step back and tell us what the software is that you wish to install. Perhaps that is already available in a packaged format for RHEL/CentOS.

I am installing the "client additions" portion of the Oracle VM VirtualBox software. In other words, the CentOS operating system is installed on a virtual machine, and I am going to now install the "client additions" onto that virtual machine. The virtual machine is installed on Windows Vista. So it is CentOS running virtual inside of Windows Vista, and I am trying to install DKMS onto the CentOS BEFORE I install the client additions onto CentOS.

DKMS is recommended because parts of the Oracle VM VirtualBox software are kernel modules. Based on what I understand, if at a later date the kernel gets updated but I do not have DKMS installed, then I will be required to reinstall the VirtualBox kernel modules. But if I first install DKMS, then each time the kernel is updated, DKMS will automatically rebuild all the device-drivers for me.

I was actually considering NOT installing DKMS simply to get the experience of having to re-install dependent kernel modules after a kernel update. So that's one reason why I might want to just skip the DKMS. But even if I do skip installing DKMS, I would still want to know how to install it if I decide to do it later.

Does the RPM do the same thing that DKMS does, or does it do something different? And how do I install DKMS? Is there something already available in a packaged format for RHEL/CentOS that would also work, as you indicated might be the case?

In that situation, dkms may be useful to have. And yes, you can install it by using yum. Please have a through read on the "3rd party repository" section of the CentOS wiki [url=http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories]Repositories[/url]. dkms is available from the [url=http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/RPMForge]RPMforge[/url] (now called [b]repoforge[/b]) repository.

Thank you for your help.

All dkms packages are buggy with centos6 as well as Fedora XX, but the last one (2.2.0.2) that you can find at:

http://linux.dell.com/dkms

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=702483

Thanks for the tip. Updated the [url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Virtualization/VirtualBox]VirtualBox Wiki page[/url] with a warning and a link here.