From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262129AbUEAUsK (ORCPT ); Sat, 1 May 2004 16:48:10 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262138AbUEAUsK (ORCPT ); Sat, 1 May 2004 16:48:10 -0400 Received: from citrine.spiritone.com ([216.99.193.133]:40608 "EHLO citrine.spiritone.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262129AbUEAUsG (ORCPT ); Sat, 1 May 2004 16:48:06 -0400 Date: Sat, 01 May 2004 13:47:49 -0700 From: "Martin J. Bligh" To: Marc Boucher cc: Tim Connors , "'lkml - Kernel Mailing List'" Subject: Re: [PATCH] Blacklist binary-only modules lying about their license Message-ID: <17110000.1083444468@[10.10.2.4]> In-Reply-To: <772768DC-9BA3-11D8-B83D-000A95BCAC26@linuxant.com> References: <009701c42edf$25e47390$ca41cb3f@amer.cisco.com> <90DD8A88-9AE2-11D8-B83D-000A95BCAC26@linuxant.com> <6900000.1083388078@[10.10.2.4]> <772768DC-9BA3-11D8-B83D-000A95BCAC26@linuxant.com> X-Mailer: Mulberry/2.2.1 (Linux/x86) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org >>> All bugs can be debugged or fixed, it's a matter of how hard it is >>> to do (generally easier with open-source) and *who* is responsible >>> for doing it (i.e. supporting the modules). >> >> Yes, exactly. The tainted mechanism is there to tell us that it's not >> *our* problem to support it. And you deliberately screwed that up, >> which is why everybody is pissed at you. > > It was already screwed up, and causing unnecessary support burdens > both on the community ("help! what does tainted mean") and vendors. > This thread and previous ones have shown ample evidence of that. > Let's deal with the root problem and fix the messages, as Rik van Riel > has suggested. > > Most third-party module suppliers have been confronted with the same issue > and forced to work around it (in other imperfect and sometimes clumsy ways). Odd that none of them just submitted a patch to fix the "real problem" then. Sorry, I don't believe that was your only intent. > One of them redirects the messages to a separate file and appends > the following notice: > > > ******************************************************************** > > * You can safely ignore the above message about tainting the kernel. > > * It is completely political and means just that the maintainers of > > * of modutils package dislike software that is not distributed under > > * an open source license. > > ******************************************************************** Which is bullshit - It's not political, it's a matter of support. Problems that appeared to be VM issues, or other things, turned out to be binary driver issues, which we can't fix, and is a total waste of our time. Whether you agree with what we chose to support or not is completely immaterial - it's not your call. M.