On Sun, Nov 04, 2001 at 12:10:29AM +0100, Jens Benecke wrote: > Basically, from 2.4.12 (I think) module developers must state in the driver > source under what licence the drivers are developed. If a module is loaded > that is not OSS compliant (e.g. VMware), the kernel will be 'tainted', and > an Oops or Panic message will show this.
It's not just an OSS compliant driver, cause in that case any OSS license will do. The license under which the module has been licensed must be GPL compatible because the kernel is GPL licensed. That rules out some variants of the BSD license, for example. To make things clear to the original poster: the kernel will not Oops or panic just by inserting a non GPL compliant > The kernel developer hope to keep proprietary modules and OSS modules > seperated, both in forms of used functions and support. (If your kernel > crashes and you send a ksymoops message to lkml containing the 'tainted' > tag, the developers might not be able and therefore refuse to help you > because they don't know what is/was going on on your machine). The plan is not to separate GPL compatible modules from non GPL compatible modules. The "tainted" flag is only there for the kernel developers so they can see if a kernel has been "poluted" or "tainted" by a non-GPL compatible module. Because the kernel developers don't have access to propriatary modules and therefore they can't debug the problem, it makes it a lot simpler for them to simply ignore those bug reports. > Also, they want an easy way to keep OSS developers from accidentally using > non-OSS functions in kernel modules they might have loaded, and some kernel > developers don't want their modules used by commercial software vendors > either. > > > All this has no effect on the ability to use these modules, as long as the > licences don't conflict. IIUC, The plan is to introduce a second symbol > namespace for proprietary modules, so that a OSS (commercial) module will > get 'unresolved symbols' when it tries to use a commercial (OSS) module. It's just the other way around: there will be a second symbol namespace for GPL'ed kernel symbols (with EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL) that can only be used by modules that are GPL (or compatible) licensed. Note that it is *not* allowed to change the licesnsing for exisiting symbols: EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL may only be used by new exported symbols. Linus promised the person who changed existing exported interfaces "killer penguins with chainsaws". And Alexander Viro made perfectly clear on the linux-kernel mailing list that creating EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL wrapper interfaces around old interfaces will not save you from the aforementioned killer penguins. For more information, see the linux-kernel mailing list, or the excellent summary in the latest "kernel-traffic" issue (see http://kt.zork.net/ ). > Jens Benecke ········ http://www.hitchhikers.de/ - Europas Mitfahrzentrale > · . · > · · . · . · <-------- verdächtiges weisses Puder > · . · . . > · · Hehe, nice .signature :) Erik -- J.A.K. (Erik) Mouw, Information and Communication Theory Group, Faculty of Information Technology and Systems, Delft University of Technology, PO BOX 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands Phone: +31-15-2783635 Fax: +31-15-2781843 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://www-ict.its.tudelft.nl/~erik/ _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
