From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754319AbXDTBEi (ORCPT ); Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:04:38 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754385AbXDTBEi (ORCPT ); Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:04:38 -0400 Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com ([66.249.82.233]:1508 "EHLO wx-out-0506.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754319AbXDTBEh (ORCPT ); Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:04:37 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=K1xf7aJ773XUHTLk6dvZsQsA8dWfUG2+GOgGL4A8hw5yi4nxieuwOzcytTwRksZQzoxHCGKeYj+g1z2Dh3DsGU0Mcj45VeCCWz+s8BujzBPuoB4j7f9yd6GfRV5LWifxrL98fLM0fl+/l0Ezl3nzLSFqVaawpsrl6NZwnfhbReY= Message-ID: Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:04:36 -0700 From: "Michael K. Edwards" To: "Alan Cox" Subject: Re: GPL-incompatible Module Error Message Cc: chris@pcburn.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <20070420003111.376a44d2@the-village.bc.nu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <4627EED5.6020800@pcburn.com> <20070420003111.376a44d2@the-village.bc.nu> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On 4/19/07, Alan Cox wrote: > The troll is back I see. Troll, shmoll. I call 'em like I see 'em. As much as I like and depend on Linux, and as much as I respect the contributions and the ideals of the EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL partisans, they're spreading needless FUD by spraying "private-don't-touch-me" all over mechanisms that are _explicitly_designed_ as interoperation boundaries. They're also aiding and abetting the FSF's hypocritical charlatanry about the meaning of "derivative work". > Why don't you give him some useful information instead Alternate technical solutions are also useful. You seem to know them; I don't pretend to. Thanks for providing them. > - Turn off the paravirt option - you don't need it, and its just bloat > and slows down the kernel. Then rebuild the kernel and other bits and it > should all work fine. Just out of curiosity -- it seems thoroughly unlikely that ATI has intentionally touched paravirt_ops in fglrx. Do you think that redefining bog-standard Linux interfaces when CONFIG_PARAVIRT (or whatever) is enabled suddenly makes fglrx a derivative work of whatever code underlies paravirt_ops? > The legality of the ati driver as a derivative work is another matter, > but I don't see what _GPL symbols have to do with its legality beyond > providing a hint. Then surely you don't approve of spraying FATAL messages on people's consoles under these circumstances. Allowing code into one's kernel whose integration problems can't or won't be diagnosed by mainline developers may be foolish, but it's not FATAL. Cheers, - Michael