Re: GPL only modules [was Re: [GIT PATCH] more Driver core patches for 2.6.19]

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>]

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> 
> I think the most important problem with the binary-only drivers is that we
> can't support their users _at_ _all_, but some of them expect us to support
> them somehow.

Actually, I do think that we've made our position on that side pretty 
clear.

I think people do by-and-large know that if they load a binary module, 
they simply can't get supported by the kernel developers. 

We make that fairly clear at module loadign time, and I think it's also 
something that people who have read linux-kernel or seen other peoples 
bug-reports are reasonably aware of.

I realize that a lot of people never read the kernel mailing list, but 
they probably don't look at www.kernel.org either - they got their kernel 
from their distribution. The only way they realize is probably by looking 
at where they got whatever binary modules they use.

That said - it should be noted that a lot of the time when you use a 
binary module and have an oops, the oops doesn't necessarily have anything 
to do with your binary module. If I recognize the oops from other reports, 
I certainly won't say "I'm not going to help you, because you used a 
binary module". If I can tell where the problem is, the binary module is a 
non-issue.

It's only when we try to debug things that we say "You've got a binary 
module, you need to reproduce this problem _without_ it, because otherwise 
we can't bother to waste our time on trying to debug something that may be 
due to somebody else".

			Linus
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