Tainted Modules Help Notices

Morgan Collins [Ax0n]
2001-10-10T08:05:51Z

After compiling 2.4.11 I noticed modprobe picking up some of the tainted modules that
were marked in the update.

What surprised me was the PPP compression modules, I didn't use PPP in 2.4.10 so maybe
the notice was there in 2.4.10, but I didn't use them so I didn't see it. I shouldn't have
been surprised, but I was. BSD compression, BSD license... doh... :>

I do however at times use the nls modules, and I see a great deal of them are BSD-NAC
licensed. It's also nice to have ipchains_core laying around for compatibility at times as
well. If I had known this at compile time I would have opted not to compile them, as
modules or otherwise. Knowing now that there are modules in the kernel build tree that are
not GPLed, and since I don't know which ones, I will grep for MODULE_LICENSE first from
now on.

After this discovery, I would like to ask opinions on including licensing terms in
item/module help files. It would be very convient if under dpt_i2o help it said that it
was licensed under BSD-NAC.

--
Morgan Collins [Ax0n] http://sirmorcant.morcant.org
Software is something like a machine, and something like mathematics, and something like
language, and something like thought, and art, and information.... but software is not in
fact any of those other things.