Re: [PATCH] Linux Kernel Markers Support for Proprierary Modules

Jan Engelhardt
2008-01-25T08:02:24Z

On Jan 24 2008 07:47, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
>On Tue, 2008-01-22 at 22:10 -0500, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
>On my part, its mostly a matter of not crashing the kernel when someone
>tries to force modprobe of a proprietary module (where the checksums
>doesn't match) on a kernel that supports the markers. Not doing so
>causes the markers to try to find the marker-specific information in
>struct module which doesn't exist and OOPSes.

>* Frank Ch. Eigler (fche@redhat.com) wrote:
>[...]
>Another way of looking at this though is that by allowing/encouraging
>proprietary module writers to include markers, we and their users get
>new diagnostic capabilities. It constitutes a little bit of opening
>up, which IMO we should reward rather than punish.

Tackling this from a different angle:

I do not think there is a real reason to forceload a module, even
those with proprietary origin (vmware) or that are of
partially-closed nature (nvidia). vmware source is fully available,
so can be compiled with proper modinfo/vermagic/markers; nvidia uses
a build system trick to include an .o blob, but eventually its .ko
also ends up with a correct modinfo/vermagic.

Forceload is for people which like to trade an unstable system for
not having to install gcc and kernel-source.

>Remember - when a user tries a Linux box with a proprietary module, and the
>experience sucks because the module sucks, they will walk away thinking
>"Linux sucks", not "That module sucks".

So what is needed is an Oops with an explaining message
if (kernel_tainted) "blame that proprietary module first",
and make sure the user sees that oops even if in X.