Parallels 18.0.1 strange Tools behavior (shared clipboard, etc.)

[Mark Fine]

Just noticed something different with Parallels 18.0.1. When you update the kernel using dnf (e.g., to kernel 5.19.8, today), Parallels Tools used to be automatically built and installed under it following the dnf cleanup stage. Now I am noticing that it likely gets properly built but produces a the error "dkms.conf not found" (or similar), and may not get fully installed. For example, the Parallels shared clipboard does not start upon rebooting into the new kernel was a good indicator that something's not right.

A possible workaround is to reboot, mount the applicable Tools iso (Intel or ARM) and then manually run the installer (I prefer the terminal-based one, ./install) to re-update Tools. Only after rebooting will the shared clipboard then properly start.

 

[Mark Fine]

Found the problem - Again, it goes back to scripts making determinations on current running version but getting it wrong because Parallels updates didn't properly clean things up.

Error in dnf was:

dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 5.19.10-200.fc36.x86_64
Error! Could not locate dkms.conf file.
File: /var/lib/dkms/parallels-tools/18.0.0.53049/source/dkms.conf does not exist.
Done.
dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 5.19.10-200.fc36.x86_64
Error! Could not locate dkms.conf file.
File: /var/lib/dkms/parallels-tools/18.0.0.53049/source/dkms.conf does not exist.
Done.

This was because both 18.0.1 AND 18.0.2 emptied, but still failed to delete the directory left as /var/lib/dkms/parallel-tools/18.0.0.53049 as well as an old kernel that was linking to it. Since the post-cleanup script was looking for the first version left in /var/lib/dkms/parallels-tools it picked 18.0.0.53049, which was empty, and of course dkms.conf didn't exist.

Solution was to manually delete the directory and the link so future kernel upgrades could properly install. Did that before dnf upgrade to 5.19.11, which fully installed.

Bottom line: Now need to add /var/lib/dkms/parallels-tools to the long list of other directories we need to manually clean up because of sloppy scripting, in addition to all the other src and lib modules that Parallels leaves behind.