MKDUD(1)

📦 version 2.6, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 mkdud(1) — create and manage SUSE Linux driver updates 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

mkdud — create and manage SUSE Linux driver updates. That’s the whole vibe, bestie: DUDs for SUSE Linux, handled. 💖

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

mkdud [OPTIONS]... SOURCES...

🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

mkdud manages driver updates (DUD) for SUSE Linux. You can create them, view their contents, and combine several driver updates into a single one. Literally the whole DUD lifecycle, no cap. ✨

💅 General Options 💅

Okay so these are the general-options girlies — quick little switches that set the overall mood. 🫶

  • --version — Show mkdud version.
  • --mkisofs — Use mkiosfs to build ISO images (default if available).
  • --xorriso — Use xorriso to build ISO images.
  • --save-temp — Keep temporary files.
  • --help — Show this help text.

🦋 Verify Driver Update 🦋

  • -s, --show=DUD — Verify DUD and print a summary. DUD may be a file or directory or an ISO image.

👑 Create Driver Update 👑

  • -c, --create=DUD — Create new driver update DUD from SOURCES.
  • -a, --arch=ARCH — Build for target ARCH (default: auto detected from SOURCES). Option can be repeated to specify several achitectures.

Note: if you don’t set the architecture and mkdud can’t find a hint in SOURCES either an update for all supported architectures is created.

  • -d, --dist=DIST — Specify the product the DUD is for. Possible values for DIST include: 13.2, sle15, leap16.1, caasp1.0, 'micro5.0', tw — standing for openSUSE 13.2, SLE 15, Leap 16.1, CaaSP 1.0, SLE Micro 5.0, Tumbleweed, respectively.

Option can be repeated to specify several distribution targets.

Note 1: Since SLES 16.0 / Leap 16.0 Agama replaces YaST as installer. See Agama vs. YaST below for more details.

Note 2: sle15 is a short hand for specifying both sles15 and sled15.

Note 3: There are no separate names for service packs. So sles15-sp1 is the same as sles15. But see --condition below for a way to target specific service packs.

See Distribution (Product) Names below for more details.

Note 4: Tumbleweed and Slowroll may use either Agama or YaST as installer. You have to use the --installer option to say for which one the DUD is intended.

  • --condition=SCRIPT — Run SCRIPT and apply DUD only if SCRIPT has exit status 0. If SCRIPT has the special name ServicePackN (N = 0, 1, 2, ...), a script that checks for service pack N is generated and added. N = 0 refers to the main product (without service pack).

Note: For Tumbleweed you can pass the snapshot version as N to limit the DUD to a specific snapshot.

Option can be repeated to specify several conditions.

  • -p, --prio=NUM — Set repository priority to NUM; lower NUM means higher priority (default: 50).
  • -n, --name=NAME — Set driver update name. If you update packages or modules a default name is generated based on the package and module versions.

Option can be repeated to specify a multi-line name.

  • -x, --exec=COMMAND — Run COMMAND right after the driver update has been loaded.

Option can be repeated to specify several commands.

Note: The commands are run just before (YaST) or after (Agama) kernel modules are updated.

  • --dracut-hook=HOOK:CMD — Insert CMD into dracut hook HOOK.

HOOK must be a valid dracut hook name. CMD is either a custom script to run or a command to run.

Option can be repeated.

See Adding dracut hooks below for details.

  • -i, --install=METHODS — Package install method. METHODS is a comma-separated list of: instsys, repo, rpm (default (Agama): instsys,repo, default (YaST): instsys,repo,rpm).
    • instsys: unpack packages in installation system / live root
    • repo: create repo with all packages and register with Agama or YaST before starting installation; repo will be removed after the installation
    • rpm: install packages at the end of the installation using rpm (that is, not via repo & zypper) - this method is only available for YaST
  • --initrd=RPM|DIR — Add RPM or content of DIR to initrd.

Option can be repeated to add several packages or directories.

This requires applying the driver update with mkmedia to work.

See How to apply driver updates below for details.

  • --iso=DIR — Add content of DIR to installation ISO image.

Option can be repeated to add several directories.

Use this option to update for example shim or grub on the installation medium.

This requires applying the driver update with mkmedia to work.

See How to apply driver updates below for details.

  • --installer=INSTALLER — Set installation program. Either agama or yast (default: auto-detected based on dist).

It is usually not necessary to use this option. There are minor differences in handling driver updates between Agama and YaST, though. mkdud takes these into account.

  • --config=KEY=VALUE — Set initrd config option KEY to VALUE. The options are changed just after the driver update has been loaded.

You can set boot options using KEY 'boot'. Setting boot options accepts the same semantics as mkmedia (see mkmedia docs); in particular, prefixing a boot option with - removes it.

See How to apply driver updates below for limitations.

Option can be repeated to set several options.

  • --no-docs — Don’t include package documentation in unpacked instsys tree (to save space).

This is the default setting.

  • --keep-docs — Include package documentation in unpacked instsys tree.
  • --force — Obsolete. Use one or more of --no-fix-XXX instead.
  • --no-fix-yast — Allow driver update to replace /sbin/yast.

See Consistency checks.

  • --no-fix-dist — Allow to specify an arbitrary distribution name with --dist.

See Consistency checks.

  • --no-fix-usr-src — Allow driver update to include /usr/src/packages.

See Consistency checks.

  • --no-fix-adddir — Do not include an updated adddir script.

See Consistency checks.

  • --no-check-hooks — Do not restict dracut hook names.

See Adding dracut hooks.

  • --format=FORMAT — Specify archive format for DUD.

FORMAT=((cpio|tar|iso)[.(gz|xz)])|rpm.

Default FORMAT is cpio.gz (gzip compressed cpio archive).

Using FORMAT 'iso' produces an ISO image with label 'OEMDRV' - see How to apply driver updates below for more information.

Note: please check README.md before changing the default.

  • --prefix=NUM — First directory prefix of driver update.

See README.

  • --sign — Sign the driver update.
  • --detached-sign — Sign the driver update. This creates a detached signature.
  • --sign-key=KEY_FILE — Use this key for signing. Alternatively, use the sign-key entry in ~/.mkdudrc.
  • --sign-key-id=KEY_ID — Use this key id for signing (anything gpg accepts). Alternatively, use the sign-key-id entry in ~/.mkdudrc.

If both --sign-key and --sign-key-id are specified, --sign-key-id wins.

Note: gpg might show an interactive dialog asking for a password to unlock the key.

  • --volume — Set ISO volume id (if using format iso).
  • --vendor — Set ISO publisher id (if using format iso).
  • --preparer — Set ISO data preparer id (if using format iso).
  • --application — Set ISO application id (if using format iso).
  • --obs-keys — Retrieve and add project keys from the openSUSE Build Service as needed to verify the RPMs in SOURCES.

See Adding RPMs below.

🎀 CONFIGURATION FILE 🎀

mkdud reads $HOME/.mkdudrc at startup. There’s only one possible entry:

  • sign-key=KEY_FILE — File name of the private signing key. The same as the --sign-key option.
  • sign-key-id=KEY_ID — Key id of the signing key. The same as the --sign-key-id option.

🌸 DRIVER UPDATE SOURCES 🌸

To create a driver update you need SOURCES. SOURCES may be:

  • existing driver updates; either as archive, rpm, or unpacked directory; all driver updates are joined
  • RPMs; Packages not containing a driver update are used according to the value of the --install option
  • PGP pubic key files (ASCII); the files are added to the rpm key database for verifying RPMs during the installation process; see Adding RPMs below
  • kernel modules
  • module.order and module.config files; see Update Media HOWTO.
  • update.pre, update.post, update.post2 scripts; see Update Media HOWTO; note that you can specify several update.post, etc. scripts; they are all run
  • *.ycp, *.ybc, or *.rb files; files are copied to the correct places automatically if they contain a usable File: comment
  • y2update directories
  • program files (binaries, libraries, executable scripts); they are put into the install dir; you can run them if needed using the --exec option
  • plain text files; they are considered documentation
  • directories that are neither DUDs nor YaST updates; everything below the directory is added to the installation system
  • ISO images; the images are unpacked and scanned for driver updates

💀 ADDING RPMS 💀

If you add RPMs to SOURCES, these RPMs can be used to update the installation system and/or to be installed in the target system. See --install option on how to choose. 👀

The best way is to go for repo to install them in the target system as then they are handled by the package manager and package dependencies are automatically resolved.

But there are two catches:

  1. The package must be actually required by the selected pattern or it must be manually selected in the package manager; else it won’t be installed at all.

This is normally no problem if you update a package (as it’s likely required, else you wouldn’t want to update it) but if you try to install some uncommon package it might not be selected.

  1. If the package is signed, the signature will be checked by the package manager and you’ll end up with a warning if the necessary public key is not available. This particularly happens with packages from the openSUSE Build Service which were built in some user’s project.

For this, mkdud will package any pgp public key files you add to SOURCES in a way so that they are used by the package manager during installation. They will not be installed in the target system.

To ease this even more, the --obs-keys option causes mkdud to retrieve the necessary keys for each RPM in SOURCES from the build service using the osc tool. Note that you must configure the build service access via $HOME/.oscrc for this to work. 🫶

🌸 DISTRIBUTION (PRODUCT) NAMES 🌸

okay bestie, so the --dist option accepts these values (case-insensitive; X, Y: decimal numbers, no cap):

  • leapX.Y (e.g. leap16.1) = openSUSE Leap X.Y
  • (obsolete) kubicX.Y (e.g. kubic1.0) = openSUSE Kubic X.Y
  • slowroll = openSUSE Slowroll
  • tw, tumbleweed = openSUSE Tumbleweed
  • sleX (e.g. sle15) = SUSE Linux Enterprise (Server + Desktop) X
  • slesX (e.g. sles15) = SUSE Linux Enterprise Server X
  • sledX (e.g. sled15) = SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop X - but see notes below
  • slesX.Y (e.g. sles16.1) = SUSE Linux Enterprise Server X.Y
  • caaspX.Y (e.g. caasp1.0) = SUSE Container as a Service Platform X.Y - see notes below
  • microX.Y (e.g. micro5.0) = SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro X.Y

As a shorthand and to avoid common mistakes, these aliases do also work (X, Y: decimal numbers):

  • X.Y with X = 15 (e.g. 15.1) resolves to: SUSE Linux Enterprise (Server + Desktop) 15 + openSUSE Leap 15.Y
  • X.Y with X >= 16 (e.g. 16.1) resolves to: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server X.Y + openSUSE Leap X.Y
  • X with X = 15 resolves to: SUSE Linux Enterprise (Server + Desktop) 15
  • X with X >= 16 resolves to: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server X.0

Note 1: there aren’t any products anymore that actually use sledX, even SLED uses the sles DUDs meanwhile. Because of this, please just use slesX when creating a DUD for a SUSE Linux Enterprise product.

Note 2: CaaSP releases are based on SLE releases. Since driver updates are usually released for a specific SLE version mkdud provides a mapping CaaSP release <→ SLE release when building with --dist=caspX.Y. Currently:

  • caasp1.0 = sles12 (-sp2)
  • caasp2.0 = sles12 (-sp3)
  • caasp3.0 = sles12 (-sp3)
  • caasp4.0 = sles15

Kubic is based on Tumbleweed. For compatibility, --dist=kubic... variants are still supported but will be mapped to Tumbleweed. Please use --dist=tw directly.

openSUSE MicroOS (not to be confused with SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro) is based on Tumbleweed. Use --dist=tw.

Driver updates built for SLE 12 will implicitly also work with CaaSP3.0; those built for SLE 15 will implicitly also work with CaaSP4.0. But this is not true for CaaSP1.0 and CaaSP2.0.

Normally, a DUD will apply to the main release as well as to all the service packs. To target a specific service pack, use the --condition option. For example, to get a DUD exclusively for sle15-sp1: --dist=sle15 --condition=ServicePack1

This works also to target a specific Tumbleweed release (YaST based only): --dist=tw --condition=20191231.

You can specify several --condition options. They must all be fulfilled (logical and).

🧚 AGAMA VS. YAST 🧚

Starting with SLES 16.0 and Leap 16.0, the installer changes from YaST to Agama. With this, the installation system setup changes substantially and there are a few differences in driver update handling.

There are currently Tumbleweed/Slowroll media with either Agama or YaST. Use the --installer option to specify for which variant you need the driver update in this case.

With Agama:

  • dracut replaces linuxrc for initial setup steps in the initrd; this results in different boot and config options
  • the --install=rpm package install method is not available; all package updates intended for the target system are done by creating a software repository with all packages
  • there are no update.pre or update.post scripts

🪄 ADDING DRACUT HOOKS 🪄

You can add dracut hooks using the --dracut-hook HOOK:CMD option. This can either be a provided custom script or a command to run - which is implicitly inserted into a suitable script.

Let’s see some examples:

  • If CMD follows the naming scheme NN-NAME.sh with NN a 2-digit number and NAME some arbitrary name then it is assumed that this is a script to run in HOOK; e.g. --dracut-hook pre-pivot:90-foobar.sh. Note that you still have to provide a script with this name to the mkdud command:
mkdud --create foobar.dud --dist sles16.1 \
--dracut-hook pre-pivot:90-foobar.sh 90-foobar.sh
  • Otherwise, CMD is assumed to be a command to run. A script 99-zz—mkdud.sh will be automatically created which runs this command and the script is added to HOOK; for example:
mkdud --create foobar.dud --dist sles16.1 \
--dracut-hook "pre-pivot:echo hello"

Hook names can be these (or use --no-check-hooks to allow arbitrary names):

  • cleanup, cmdline, emergency, mount, netroot, pre-mount, pre-pivot, pre-shutdown, pre-trigger, pre-udev, shutdown, shutdown-emergency, initqueue/finished, initqueue/online, initqueue/settled, initqueue/timeout

See dracut.modules(7) for documentation.

🔍 CONSISTENCY CHECKS 🔍

It is possible to create driver updates that will predictably not work because they interfere with the setup of the installation environment.

mkdud will warn you and try to work around these cases. But there still may be valid use-cases so the --fix-XXX / --no-fix-XXX group of options lets you enable (default) or disable these workarounds.

  • --[no-]fix-yast — In older SUSE versions /sbin/yast was a different script in the installation environment than the one from the yast package. Updating the special variant with the regular script would make the installation impossible. mkdud recognizes this and removes /sbin/yast from driver updates.
  • --[no-]fix-dist — The --dist option normally allows you to specify only distributions mkdud knows about. With this option you may put anything there - in case you know better.
  • --[no-]fix-usr-src — The installation system must not contain a /usr/src/packages directory. mkdud normally removes it (and its content) from driver updates.
  • --[no-]fix-adddir — The /sbin/adddir script is used in the installation system to actually apply the part of a driver update that replaces files in the installation system. In older SUSE versions this script was not able to update some programs from the coreutils package. mkdud implicitly includes an update for this script if it detects a need for it.
  • --[no-]check-hooks — mkdud will only allow dracut hook names it knows about. But dracut may evolve. Use this option to disable the check if necessary.

🚀 HOW TO APPLY DRIVER UPDATES 🚀

There are several ways to apply driver updates:

  1. During installation
    • using boot option inst.dud=URL_TO_DUD_FILE (Agama) resp. dud=URL_TO_DUD_FILE (YaST)
    • unpack the driver update to a local file system with label OEMDRV (YaST)
    • rename the driver update to driverupdate and place it into the root of the installation repository (at the same level where the repodata directory is) (YaST)
  2. By preparing patched installation media
    • using mkmedia --create new.iso --initrd DUD_FILE orig.iso
    • using mkmedia --create new.iso --apply-dud DUD_FILE orig.iso

The difference between --apply-dud and --initrd is that --apply-dud applies the driver update directly to the installation medium while --initrd only adds the driver update to the initrd where it will be found and applied at installation time (equivalent to using the inst.dud or dud boot options).

Only with --apply-dud you can apply changes to the initrd, boot options, or the installation ISO.

mkdud --show DUD_FILE tells you which ways are available for a specific driver update.

Using mkdud --format=iso ... produces an ISO9660 file system with label OEMDRV - ready to be used in the OEMDRV method described above (no unpacking needed).

Note: If you have package updates for the live root file system (using --install=instsys) the updated packages are added to the installation system / live root - but rpm scripts are not run and the live root rpm database is not updated.
Hint: If it simplifies your workflow, combine several driver updates into a single update; e.g.: mkdud --create foo_all.dud foo1.dud foo2.dud foo3.dud ...

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

# show content of foo.dud
mkdud --show foo.dud

# create update for hello.rpm
mkdud --create foo.dud --dist leap15.1 hello.rpm

# create kernel update
mkdud --create foo.dud --dist leap15.1 kernel-*.rpm

# create kernel update and replace tg3 module
mkdud --create foo.dud --dist leap15.1 kernel-*.rpm tg3.ko

# create kernel update, replace tg3 module, add some docs
# and give the driver update a nice name
mkdud --create foo.dud --dist leap15.1 --name 'for granny' kernel-*.rpm tg3.ko README

# update some YaST stuff
mkdud --create foo.dud --dist leap15.1 BootCommon.y*

# add directory tree below newstuff/ to installation system
mkdud --create foo.dud --dist leap15.1 newstuff

# extract driver updates from ISO (you need root permissions for that)
mkdud --create foo.dud xxx.iso

# create update for hello.rpm and join with foo1.dud and foo2.dud
mkdud --create foo.dud --dist sle15 foo1.dud foo2.dud hello.rpm

Find more usage examples here: https://github.com/openSUSE/mkdud/blob/master/HOWTO.md.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

mkmedia(1), dracut.modules(7), dracut.cmdline(7).

that’s the whole vibe check bestie — this iconic little manual is mkdud 2.5, dated 2026-03-30, and it’s MKDUD(1). byeee, go make a DUD 💅🫶✨

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