From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Thu, 30 Aug 2001 21:48:52 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Thu, 30 Aug 2001 21:48:42 -0400 Received: from zok.sgi.com ([204.94.215.101]:63872 "EHLO zok.sgi.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Thu, 30 Aug 2001 21:48:28 -0400 X-Mailer: exmh version 2.1.1 10/15/1999 From: Keith Owens To: Alan Cox cc: laughing@shared-source.org (Alan Cox), linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Linux 2.4.9-ac5 In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 31 Aug 2001 02:26:09 +0100." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 11:48:34 +1000 Message-ID: <9293.999222514@kao2.melbourne.sgi.com> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, 31 Aug 2001 02:26:09 +0100 (BST), Alan Cox wrote: >> What do you need for licence support in modutils? Obviously modinfo >> needs to print it, but what about insmod? Should insmod issue warning >> messages for proprietary modules? What about ksymoops? IOW, what was >> the reason for adding MODULE_LICENSE? > >My goal is to eventually include the info tucked away on oops report lines >so that I can automatically dump bug reports with binary drivers, including >the growing number of people who lie about nvdriver and think that this will >get their bug cured. Then we have a problem. The modinfo and modstring sections are not loaded into kernel space, they are processed by insmod then discarded. Solution: /proc/sys/kernel/tainted. Set to 0 on boot, set to 1 by insmod when it finds a non-GPL module, printed by panic, extracted by ksymoops. Any load of a proprietary module taints the kernel, even if it is later removed. The kernel code for that sysctl only allows taint to be set, not to be cleared. Not perfect, really malicious users can hack the kernel. Or they can simply edit the taint flag in the oops report. But it will catch 90%+ of the problem case.