Messages in this thread | ![/](/images/icornerl.gif) | | Date | Sat, 16 Dec 2006 08:33:27 -0800 (PST) | From | Linus Torvalds <> | Subject | Re: GPL only modules [was Re: [GIT PATCH] more Driver core patches for 2.6.19] |
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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".
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