Proprietary FGLRX module fails to compile due to GPL only code

Question

(Ubuntu 15.04) After latest round of updates fglrx failed to compile dkms module on both of my laptops. 1 laptop has switchable graphics and the other does not. The laptop with switchable graphics works fine with the integrated intel chipset while the other laptop boots to a black screen. The error log is below.

FATAL: modpost: GPL-incompatible module fglrx.ko uses GPL-only symbol 'pci_ignore_hotplug'
scripts/Makefile.modpost:90: recipe for target '__modpost' failed
make[2]: *** [__modpost] Error 1
Makefile:1397: recipe for target 'modules' failed
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-3.19.0-26-generic'

I've looked around on askubuntu.com and noticed allot of new Ubuntu users upset with broken Ubuntu desktops using FGLRX without any answers to whats going on. If someone comes up with an answer we could respond to some of these users questions.

Fixed thanks to Pilot6 and Vladimir

Disable pre-released updates in software manager.

Drop to terminal and type this in

sudo apt-get purge linux-headers-3.19.0-26 linux-headers-3.19.0-26-generic linux-image-3.19.0-26-generic 

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-3.19.0-25 linux-headers-3.19.0-25-generic linux-image-3.19.0-25-generic

Answer 1

The real problem, is that the kernel has a function that is exported as gpl only. Two possible solutions:

1. Driver update to use non-gpl function instead
2. Kernel update to export function as non-gpl

The FGLRX, NVIDIA, and custom modules with MODULE_LICENSE("Proprietary") will all fail until then.

In my situation using trace_printk in 3.19 kernel, for a proprietary in-house module, generates the error for '__trace_bputs'

I worked around the issue (for internal testing only, due to obvious legal reasons), by changing the MODULE_LICENSE to "GPL".