mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_3983’: Permission denied Kernel version parse failed! - I'm trying to install wifi backports

Question

I'm getting the following error in my terminal while installing backports for My wifi adapter.

My askubuntu question is My Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 Wireless adopter is not working in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Vendor: Lenovo Model:E41-25)

I'm using the kernel version:

wintersoldier@wintersoldier:~$ uname -s -r
Linux 5.8.12-050812-generic

My error is:

wintersoldier@wintersoldier:~$ cd backports-20151120
wintersoldier@wintersoldier:~/backports-20151120$ make defconfig-wifi
Generating local configuration database from kernel ...mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4206’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4208’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4210’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4212’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4214’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4216’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4219’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4221’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4223’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4225’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4227’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4229’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4231’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4233’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4235’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4237’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4239’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4241’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4243’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4245’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4247’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4249’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4251’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4253’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4255’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4257’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4259’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4261’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4263’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4265’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4268’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4270’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4272’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4274’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4276’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4278’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4280’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4282’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4284’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4286’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4288’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4290’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4292’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4294’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4296’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_4298’: Permission denied
Kernel version parse failed!
make: *** [Makefile:42: defconfig-wifi] Error 1
wintersoldier@wintersoldier:~/backports-20151120$

Please help me to sort out my problem

Answer 1

You cannot create directories in the kernel source tree because the files in /usr/src are all owned by the superuser (root).

I tried the following modification to the script in your other question:

tar zxvf backports-20151120.tar.gz # like original
cd backports-20151120 # like original
sudo rsync -axvH /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r` /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`.backup # make a backup copy first
sudo chown -vR $USER /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r` # change ownership of all kernel headers
make defconfig-wifi # resume script

Now, this fails with the same Generating local configuration database from kernel ...Kernel version parse failed! but without the cannot create directory errors.

The backport you're trying to install follows this script which was created in 2016; are you sure you need to build the kernel? (My stock install has firmware for the QCA9377):

ls -lR /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9377/