With the backported versions, no, it didn't seem to be doing that. I no longer have access to that environment so the closest thing I can do is attempt to reproduce in Trixie with two different point versions.
Trixie appears to work without sign-file specified. Kbuild is making a copy of /usr/lib/linux-kbuild-6.12.43+deb13/scripts/sign-file in /lib/modules/6.12.43+deb13-amd64/build/scripts/sign-file even though it isn't in the manifest. root@debian:/# rm /lib/modules/6.12.43+deb13-amd64/build/scripts/sign-file root@debian:/# stat /lib/modules/6.12.43+deb13-amd64/build/scripts/sign-file stat: cannot statx '/lib/modules/6.12.43+deb13-amd64/build/scripts/sign-file': No such file or directory root@debian:/# apt reinstall linux-kbuild-6.12.43+deb13 Summary: Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Reinstalling: 1, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 17 Download size: 0 B / 1,531 kB Space needed: 0 B / 439 GB available (Reading database ... 260969 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../linux-kbuild-6.12.43+deb13_6.12.43-1_amd64.deb ... Unpacking linux-kbuild-6.12.43+deb13 (6.12.43-1) over (6.12.43-1) ... Setting up linux-kbuild-6.12.43+deb13 (6.12.43-1) ... root@debian:/# stat /lib/modules/6.12.43+deb13-amd64/build/scripts/sign-file File: /lib/modules/6.12.43+deb13-amd64/build/scripts/sign-file Size: 18952 Blocks: 40 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 253,0 Inode: 22552312 Links: 1 Access: (0755/-rwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root) Context: system_u:object_r:lib_t:s0 Access: 2025-09-14 08:32:45.000000000 -0400 Modify: 2025-08-27 04:10:25.000000000 -0400 Change: 2025-09-14 08:32:45.259004542 -0400 Birth: 2025-09-14 08:32:45.235004079 -0400 # dpkg -S sign-file linux-kbuild-6.12.38+deb13: /usr/lib/linux-kbuild-6.12.38+deb13/scripts/sign-file linux-kbuild-6.12.43+deb13: /usr/lib/linux-kbuild-6.12.43+deb13/scripts/sign-file With the copy? of sign-file in /lib/modules/6.12.43+deb13-amd64/ even if I did need to specify a sign file, that path does work with dkms framework's $kernelver On Sun, Sep 14, 2025 at 11:59 AM Andreas Beckmann <[email protected]> wrote: > Control: tag -1 moreinfo > > On 7/2/25 01:51, Cliff Kilby wrote: > > I recently decided to jump from kernel 6.1 to 6.12 via debian backports. > > > I needed to ensure I had /etc/dkms/framework.conf pointing to a sign_file > > executable, as I have secureboot with a custom platform key. I had tested > > 6.12 fairly extensively and wanted to remove kernel 6.1 from disk. > > /etc/dkms/framework.conf says use "$kernelver". > > sign_file="/usr/lib/linux-kbuild-$kernelver/scripts/sign-file" > > Why do you need to set sign_file at all? If it is unset, dkms should > default to guessing the correct one based on the distribution you use. > It will then print the script it is going to use. > Doesn't it find the correct one in your case? > > Andreas >
