8.74. Udev from Systemd-254

#### Linux From Scratch - Version 12.0-rc1

### Chapter 8. Installing Basic System Software

- Prev

  Jinja2-3.1.2

- Next

  Man-DB-2.11.2

- Up
- Home

# 8.74. Udev from Systemd-254

The Udev package contains programs for dynamic creation of device nodes.

Approximate build time: 0.2 SBU
Required disk space: 138 MB

## 8.74.1. Installation of Udev

Udev is part of the systemd-254 package. Use the systemd-254.tar.xz file as the source tarball.

Remove two unneeded groups, `render` and `sgx`, from the default udev rules:

    sed -i -e 's/GROUP="render"/GROUP="video"/' \
           -e 's/GROUP="sgx", //' rules.d/50-udev-default.rules.in

Remove one udev rule requiring a full Systemd installation:

    sed '/systemd-sysctl/s/^/#/' -i rules.d/99-systemd.rules.in

Prepare Udev for compilation:

    mkdir -p build
    cd       build

    meson setup \
          --prefix=/usr                 \
          --buildtype=release           \
          -Dmode=release                \
          -Ddev-kvm-mode=0660           \
          -Dlink-udev-shared=false      \
          ..

The meaning of the meson options:

`--buildtype=release`

  This switch overrides the default buildtype (“debug”), which produces unoptimized binaries.

`-Dmode=release`

  Disable some features considered experimental by upstream.

`-Ddev-kvm-mode=0660`

  The default udev rule would allow all users to access `/dev/kvm`. The editors consider it dangerous. This option overrides it.

`-Dlink-udev-shared=false`

  This option prevents udev from linking to the internal systemd shared library, `libsystemd-shared`. This library is designed to be shared by many Systemd components and it's too overkill for a udev-only installation.

Only build the components needed for udev:

    ninja udevadm systemd-hwdb \
          $(grep -o -E "^build (src/libudev|src/udev|rules.d|hwdb.d)[^:]*" \
            build.ninja | awk '{ print $2 }')                              \
          $(realpath libudev.so --relative-to .)

Remove one udev rule file requiring a full Systemd installation:

    rm rules.d/90-vconsole.rules

Install the package:

    install -vm755 -d {/usr/lib,/etc}/udev/{hwdb,rules}.d
    install -vm755 -d /usr/{lib,share}/pkgconfig
    install -vm755 udevadm                     /usr/bin/
    install -vm755 systemd-hwdb                /usr/bin/udev-hwdb
    ln      -svfn  ../bin/udevadm              /usr/sbin/udevd
    cp      -av    libudev.so{,*[0-9]}         /usr/lib/
    install -vm644 ../src/libudev/libudev.h    /usr/include/
    install -vm644 src/libudev/*.pc            /usr/lib/pkgconfig/
    install -vm644 src/udev/*.pc               /usr/share/pkgconfig/
    install -vm644 ../src/udev/udev.conf       /etc/udev/
    install -vm644 rules.d/* ../rules.d/{*.rules,README} /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/
    install -vm644 hwdb.d/*  ../hwdb.d/{*.hwdb,README}   /usr/lib/udev/hwdb.d/
    install -vm755 $(find src/udev -type f | grep -F -v ".") /usr/lib/udev

Install some custom rules and support files useful in an LFS environment:

    tar -xvf ../../udev-lfs-20230728.tar.xz
    make -f udev-lfs-20230728/Makefile.lfs install

Install the man pages:

    tar -xf ../../systemd-man-pages-254.tar.xz                            \
        --no-same-owner --strip-components=1                              \
        -C /usr/share/man --wildcards '*/udev*' '*/libudev*'              \
                                      '*/systemd-'{hwdb,udevd.service}.8
    sed 's/systemd\(\\\?-\)/udev\1/' /usr/share/man/man8/systemd-hwdb.8   \
                                   > /usr/share/man/man8/udev-hwdb.8
    sed 's|lib.*udevd|sbin/udevd|'                                        \
        /usr/share/man/man8/systemd-udevd.service.8                       \
      > /usr/share/man/man8/udevd.8
    rm  /usr/share/man/man8/systemd-*.8

## 8.74.2. Configuring Udev

Information about hardware devices is maintained in the `/etc/udev/hwdb.d` and `/usr/lib/udev/hwdb.d` directories. Udev needs that information to be compiled into a binary database `/etc/udev/hwdb.bin`. Create the initial database:

    udev-hwdb update

This command needs to be run each time the hardware information is updated.

## 8.74.3. Contents of Udev

Installed programs: udevadm, udevd (symlink to udevadm), and udev-hwdb
Installed libraries: libudev.so
Installed directories: /etc/udev and /usr/lib/udev

### Short Descriptions

udevadm | Generic udev administration tool: controls the udevd daemon, provides info from the Udev database, monitors uevents, waits for uevents to finish, tests Udev configuration, and triggers uevents for a given device
udevd | A daemon that listens for uevents on the netlink socket, creates devices and runs the configured external programs in response to these uevents
udev-hwdb | Updates or queries the hardware database.
`libudev` | A library interface to udev device information
`/etc/udev` | Contains Udev configuration files, device permissions, and rules for device naming

- Prev

  Jinja2-3.1.2

- Next

  Man-DB-2.11.2

- Up
- Home