From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:04:36 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:04:28 -0400 Received: from e21.nc.us.ibm.com ([32.97.136.227]:46794 "EHLO e21.nc.us.ibm.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:03:15 -0400 Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 13:03:05 -0500 From: Dave McCracken To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Binary only module overview Message-ID: <87110000.1001354585@baldur> In-Reply-To: <46458FB0D75@vcnet.vc.cvut.cz> In-Reply-To: <46458FB0D75@vcnet.vc.cvut.cz> X-Mailer: Mulberry/2.1.0 (Linux/x86) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org --On Monday, September 24, 2001 19:52:13 +0000 Petr Vandrovec wrote: >> > Yes, but the modules are not binary-only. >> > The sourcecode is in the package, although it is not GPL. >> >> I believe they only provide source for an interface layer that can be >> compiled against a specific version of the kernel. I think the core >> drivers are binary only. > > VMnet and VMppuser drivers are completely standalone and can work > without VMware. You can persuade VMmon module to load and execute > arbitrary code on kernel level - it just provides virtual machine > environment (switches CPU context), but as it even does not link to > anything else, I do not see any problem here. DRI drivers also allows > you to smash arbitrary piece of memory... > > As for license on these modules - I was under impression that they are > under GPL, but I'll ask VMware for clarification. As a couple of people pointed out privately to me, I was mistaken. VMware does include the complete source to its drivers. A quick check of the file headers shows a VMware copyright with no mention of GPL. Granted, that's not definitive, but it's a data point. Dave McCracken ===================================================================== Dave McCracken IBM Linux Base Kernel Team 1-512-838-3059 dmccr@us.ibm.com T/L 678-3059