[Bug]: virtualbox does not build with LTS kernel 6.18.44

[rfrohl]

Version

7.2.14

Host OS Type

Linux

Host OS name + version

openSUSE Tumbleweed

Host Architecture

x86

Guest OS Type

other

Guest Architecture

n/a

Guest OS name + version

n/a

Component

Unspecified

What happened?

With the new kernel LTS release 6.18.44 the kmp build starts failing:

[   82s] vbox_fb.c: In function ‘vboxfb_create’:
[   82s] vbox_fb.c:336:16: error: implicit declaration of function ‘drm_fb_helper_alloc_info’; did you mean ‘drm_fb_helper_fill_info’? [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
[   82s]   336 |         info = drm_fb_helper_alloc_info(helper);
[   82s]       |                ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[   82s]       |                drm_fb_helper_fill_info
[   82s] vbox_fb.c:336:14: error: assignment to ‘struct fb_info *’ from ‘int’ makes pointer from integer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]
[   82s]   336 |         info = drm_fb_helper_alloc_info(helper);
[   82s]       |              ^
[   82s] make[3]: *** [/usr/src/linux-6.18.44-1-longterm/scripts/Makefile.build:287: vbox_fb.o] Error 1
[   82s] make[3]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

This is likely due to a backport from 6.19 that removes the EXPORT_SYMBOL from drm_fb_helper_alloc_info().

I suspect that it would need an adjustment similar to the 6.19 changes.

How can we reproduce this?

building against the new LTS 6.18.44 kernel

Did you upload all of your necessary log files, screenshots, etc.?

• Yes, I've uploaded all pertinent files to this issue.

[rfrohl]

Maybe it helps someone, we fixed it with this patch.

There is some uncertainty if there might be functional impact as well, requiring more changes, but this at least fixes the build.