On Dec 14, 2007 3:49 PM, Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:

quoted text
> Could you tell me the name of that facility, or something else about
> it?  If it is specifically and only useful for blobs, perhaps it
> should be remove from gNewSense.  On the other hand, if it is a
> general purpose feature and blobs are merely one thing it could be
> used for, then I probably don't have anything against it.  I don't
> criticize general facilities merely because someone could use them
> to do things with non-free software.

Linux kernels allow you to load external modules.  These modules can
be GPL licensed, or have other licenses.  If non-GPL modules are
loaded, the kernel is "tainted".  You can remove the ability to
"taint" the kernel.  The first link in google for "linux kernel taint"
is Novell's page on it, the relevant piece is below.  The question for
you then becomes, if the kernel allows loading of non-free modules,
but if you can disable it, but don't disable it, is that the "right"
thing to do?  Well, not "right", but the "free" thing to do?  Is that
what free software should support?

Taint flags

The taint status of the kernel not only indicates whether or not the
kernel has been tainted but also indicates what type(s) of event
caused the kernel to be marked as tainted. This information is encoded
through single-character flags in the string following "Tainted:" in a
kernel error message.

    * P: A module with a Proprietary license has been loaded, i.e. a
module that is not licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)
or a compatible license. This may indicate that source code for this
module is not available to the Linux kernel developers or to Novell's
developers.
    * G: The opposite of 'P': the kernel has been tainted (for a
reason indicated by a different flag), but all modules loaded into it
were licensed under the GPL or a license compatible with the GPL.
    * F: A module was loaded using the Force option "-f" of insmod or
modprobe,  which caused a sanity check of the versioning information
from the module (if present) to be skipped.
    * R: A module which was in use or was not designed to be removed
has been forcefully Removed from the running kernelusing the force
option "-f" of rmmod.
    * S: The Linux kernel is running with Symmetric MultiProcessor
support (SMP), but the CPUs in the system are not designed or
certified for SMP use.
    * M: A Machine Check Exception (MCE) has been raised while the
kernel was running. MCEs are triggered by the hardware to indicate a
hardware related problem, for example the CPU's temperature exceeding
a treshold or a memory bank signaling an uncorrectable error.
    * B: A process has been found in a Bad page state, indicating a
corruption of the virtual memory subsystem, possibly caused by
malfunctioning RAM or cache memory.


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