Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S964990AbWJWSgZ (ORCPT ); Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:36:25 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S964999AbWJWSgZ (ORCPT ); Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:36:25 -0400 Received: from threatwall.zlynx.org ([199.45.143.218]:13185 "EHLO zlynx.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S964990AbWJWSgY (ORCPT ); Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:36:24 -0400 Subject: Re: incorrect taint of ndiswrapper From: Zan Lynx To: Alan Cox Cc: Linux Kernel , Giridhar Pemmasani In-Reply-To: <1161600064.19388.14.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <20061023054119.75745.qmail@web32415.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <1161600064.19388.14.camel@localhost.localdomain> Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="=-Q+ebL8+8G9ibCSgjq35V" Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 12:36:21 -0600 Message-Id: <1161628581.8901.30.camel@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.8.1 X-Envelope-From: zlynx@acm.org Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1862 Lines: 50 --=-Q+ebL8+8G9ibCSgjq35V Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, 2006-10-23 at 11:41 +0100, Alan Cox wrote: > Ar Sul, 2006-10-22 am 22:41 -0700, ysgrifennodd Giridhar Pemmasani: > > Note that when a driver is loaded, ndiswrapper does taint the kernel (t= o be > > more accurate, it should check if the driver being loaded is GPL or not= , but > > that is not done). >=20 > However by then it has already dynamically linked with explicit GPLONLY > symbols so it cannot then load a binary windows driver but should unload > itself or refuse to load anything but the GPL ndis drivers (of which > afaik only one exists), and even then they expect an environment > incompatible with the Linux kernel. The kernel itself links GPL code to non-GPL via the Posix API (the syscall layer). The kernel also links GPL code to non-GPL via the PCI layer (all that proprietary firmware on the other side). The ndiswrapper links GPL code to non-GPL via the NDIS API. No difference, really. Implementing a well-defined interface abstraction layer doesn't make either side of it derived from the other. (Exactly how well-defined, how abstract, and how derived are all arguments for the lawyers.) --=20 Zan Lynx --=-Q+ebL8+8G9ibCSgjq35V Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQBFPQulG8fHaOLTWwgRAogfAJ9R/FSKFK3d0/S+hhjV7EU7r2PVWQCdFjoI W9cD1Nf0c7kteI46nTkOpnY= =8nsd -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-Q+ebL8+8G9ibCSgjq35V-- - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/