[nflug] Destructive Makefile???

[Roelant Ossewaarde]

Hi all,

I have a problem that has me scratching my head in disbelief.

Here's the scenario: I'm trying to build a RTL-8180 driver for my  
wireless card. I've installed linux-sources (I'm running a 2.6.8-18  
kernel).

I should say I've never had to build drivers before; it doesn't look  
hard, but for some reason I get an error message.

Here's the funky part: `make' will actually REMOVE all of my source  
files when it encounters the error:

miep at debian:~$ ls rtl8180-0.21
AUTHORS            ieee80211_crypt.h      ieee80211_rx.c   
Makefile       module_unload24  r8180_gct.h      r8180_pm.c       
r8180_wx.h
CHANGES            ieee80211_crypt_wep.c  ieee80211_tx.c   
Makefile26     r8180_93cx6.c    r8180.h          r8180_pm.h      README
compat24.h         ieee802_11.h           ieee80211_wx.c   
module_load    r8180_93cx6.h    r8180_hw.h       r8180_sa2400.c   
README.adhoc
COPYING            ieee80211.h            INSTALL          
module_load24  r8180_core.c     r8180_max2820.c  r8180_sa2400.h   
README.master
ieee80211_crypt.c  ieee80211_module.c     LICENSE          
module_unload  r8180_gct.c      r8180_max2820.h  r8180_wx.c
miep at debian:~$ cd rtl8180-0.21/
miep at debian:~/rtl8180-0.21$ make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.18-5-486/build SUBDIRS=/home/miep/ 
rtl8180-0.21 MODVERDIR=/home/miep/rtl8180-0.21 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18'

   WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18/ 
Module.symvers
            is missing; modules will have no dependencies and  
modversions.

scripts/Makefile.build:17: /home/miep/rtl8180-0.21/Makefile: No such  
file or directory
make[2]: *** No rule to make target `/home/miep/rtl8180-0.21/ 
Makefile'.  Stop.
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/miep/rtl8180-0.21] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18'
make: *** [2.6] Error 2
miep at debian:~/rtl8180-0.21$ ls
miep at debian:~/rtl8180-0.21$

Note the last command: the directory is now EMPTY.

This has nothing to do with the driver itself; before I installed the  
kernel sources, I got the same error, but no removal of files. Also,  
the same behavior occurs when I'm trying to build a different driver,  
in a different directory. I have the feeling something within the  
kernel build system does this, but I cannot believe that anyone would  
ever code such a destructive procedure.

I have no clue what's happening here. Anyone else?

Thanks,

Roelant.