On Sun, Oct 21, 2001 at 02:46:36AM +0000, Pollywog wrote: > I just installed kernel 2.4.12 on my laptop, and when it boots, I get > the following messages: > > Warning, loading /lib/modules/2.4.12/pcmcia/i82365.o will taint the > kernel: no license > > I get a similar message for pcmcia/ds.o > > Anyone know what this is about and how to fix it? I just noticed this in 2.4.12; perhaps it's something new. I think it means that the module didn't tell the kernel what license it was published under, or has a license that's incompatible with the GPL. I don't know what you can do about it.
>From oops-tracing.txt in the 2.4.12 kernel documentation: Tainted kernels: Some oops reports contain the string 'Tainted: ' after the program counter, this indicates that the kernel has been tainted by some mechanism. The string is followed by a series of position sensitive characters, each representing a particular tainted value. 1: 'G' if all modules loaded have a GPL or compatible license, 'P' if any proprietary module has been loaded. Modules without a MODULE_LICENSE or with a MODULE_LICENSE that is not recognised by insmod as GPL compatible are assumed to be proprietary. 2: 'F' if any module was force loaded by insmod -f, ' ' if all modules were loaded normally. The primary reason for the 'Tainted: ' string is to tell kernel debuggers if this is a clean kernel or if anything unusual has occurred. Tainting is permanent, even if an offending module is unloading the tainted value remains to indicate that the kernel is not trustworthy. -- Lance Simmons