Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1759686AbYCDRi3 (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Mar 2008 12:38:29 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751481AbYCDRiU (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Mar 2008 12:38:20 -0500 Received: from ns.suse.de ([195.135.220.2]:50317 "EHLO mx1.suse.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750808AbYCDRiT (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Mar 2008 12:38:19 -0500 Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:38:40 -0800 From: Greg KH To: Linus Torvalds Cc: Ingo Molnar , Pavel Roskin , Zan Lynx , linux-kernel , Jon Masters , Rusty Russell Subject: Re: [PATCH 2.6.25] module: allow ndiswrapper to use GPL-only symbols Message-ID: <20080304173840.GA16165@suse.de> References: <1204305609.21719.16.camel@dv> <1204313978.2316.8.camel@dv> <20080229211513.GI27212@elte.hu> <1204324265.2316.70.camel@dv> <20080303105752.GA23594@elte.hu> <20080304003723.z79pcavdk4wgoc44@webmail.spamcop.net> <20080304125744.GF29777@elte.hu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.16 (2007-06-09) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1926 Lines: 40 On Tue, Mar 04, 2008 at 09:19:36AM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote: > Quite frankly, my position on this has always been that the GPLv2 > explicitly covers _derived_ works only, and that very obviously a Windows > driver isn't a derived work of the kernel. So as far as I'm concerned, > ndiswrapper may be distasteful froma technical and support angle, but not > against the license. I think ndiswrapper is a great hack from a technical point-of-view. But yes, I also do not think it is a violation of the GPLv2 for the same reasons you do. > So I'm personally perfectly happy to say that we should revert that commit > 0aa5bd52d0c49ca56d24584c646e6544ccbb3dc9, but what I've wanted to hear > from the very beginning was simply to get a list of symbols that currently > clash, and hear from the people who maintain the symbols whether they > really meant for that commit to be valid. > > That's the only issue here. Not whether ndiswrapper could do a part of its > job in user space (because the answer to that latter question is: no. > Everything is "possible", of course, but realistically, that's simply not > going to happen). > > It sounds like there aren't that many symbols affected at the core: the > workqueue stuff certainly isn't worth bothering about. The USB things that > ndiswrapper wants is much more involved, and more likely to have issues, > but I'm cc'ing Greg here to see. I have no objection to reverting that patch to have nidiswrapper access to those symbols, especially as that is really the only way they will be able to control USB devices (as you state, doing a network driver in userspace doesn't really make sense.) thanks, greg k-h -- 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/