Re: [PATCH] Blacklist binary-only modules lying about their license

From: Marc Boucher
Date: Tue Apr 27 2004 - 19:06:07 EST



Rusty, the workaround was done a while ago, back in the 2.5 days when your new module code
was still very much in flux. It was necessary to have an effective short-term solution for the existing
installed base (2.4), since we could not continue to confuse customers while waiting for the patch
to propagate. In other cases, we have gladly submitted patches when we encountered bugs and
could fix them. Had we known that the module fix was so simple, it would of course have been
submitted it to you in parallel.

Also since you and I have worked well together in other projects (netfilter core) and are long time friends,
I don't understand why you are so quick to question my integrity in public. We didn't lie about anything;
the license text is perfectly clear, and the political situation with Conexant's proprietary signal processing
code outside of our control.

Marc

--
Marc Boucher
Linuxant inc.

On Apr 27, 2004, at 7:12 PM, Rusty Russell wrote:

On Wed, 2004-04-28 at 02:58, Marc Boucher wrote:
Actually, we also have no desire nor purpose to prevent tainting. The purpose
of the workaround is to avoid repetitive warning messages generated when
multiple modules belonging to a single logical "driver" are loaded (even when
a module is only probed but not used due to the hardware not being present).

You lied about the license, rather than submit a one-line change to
kernel/module.c.

This shows a lack of integrity that I find personally repulsive.

Name: Only Print Taint Message Once
Status: Trivial

Only print the tainted message the first time. Its purpose is to warn
users that we can't support them, not to fill their logs.

diff -urpN --exclude TAGS -X /home/rusty/devel/kernel/kernel-patches/current-dontdiff --minimal .22310-linux-2.6.6-rc2-bk5/kernel/module.c .22310-linux-2.6.6-rc2-bk5.updated/kernel/module.c
--- .22310-linux-2.6.6-rc2-bk5/kernel/module.c 2004-04-22 08:04:00.000000000 +1000
+++ .22310-linux-2.6.6-rc2-bk5.updated/kernel/module.c 2004-04-28 09:03:31.000000000 +1000
@@ -1131,7 +1131,7 @@ static void set_license(struct module *m
license = "unspecified";

mod->license_gplok = license_is_gpl_compatible(license);
- if (!mod->license_gplok) {
+ if (!mod->license_gplok && !(tainted & TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE)) {
printk(KERN_WARNING "%s: module license '%s' taints kernel.\n",
mod->name, license);
tainted |= TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE;

--
Anyone who quotes me in their signature is an idiot -- Rusty Russell


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