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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst')
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diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..1df03b5cb02f --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +Tainted kernels +--------------- + +Some oops reports contain the string **'Tainted: '** after the program +counter. This indicates that the kernel has been tainted by some +mechanism. The string is followed by a series of position-sensitive +characters, each representing a particular tainted value. + + 1) 'G' if all modules loaded have a GPL or compatible license, 'P' if + any proprietary module has been loaded. Modules without a + MODULE_LICENSE or with a MODULE_LICENSE that is not recognised by + insmod as GPL compatible are assumed to be proprietary. + + 2) ``F`` if any module was force loaded by ``insmod -f``, ``' '`` if all + modules were loaded normally. + + 3) ``S`` if the oops occurred on an SMP kernel running on hardware that + hasn't been certified as safe to run multiprocessor. + Currently this occurs only on various Athlons that are not + SMP capable. + + 4) ``R`` if a module was force unloaded by ``rmmod -f``, ``' '`` if all + modules were unloaded normally. + + 5) ``M`` if any processor has reported a Machine Check Exception, + ``' '`` if no Machine Check Exceptions have occurred. + + 6) ``B`` if a page-release function has found a bad page reference or + some unexpected page flags. + + 7) ``U`` if a user or user application specifically requested that the + Tainted flag be set, ``' '`` otherwise. + + 8) ``D`` if the kernel has died recently, i.e. there was an OOPS or BUG. + + 9) ``A`` if the ACPI table has been overridden. + + 10) ``W`` if a warning has previously been issued by the kernel. + (Though some warnings may set more specific taint flags.) + + 11) ``C`` if a staging driver has been loaded. + + 12) ``I`` if the kernel is working around a severe bug in the platform + firmware (BIOS or similar). + + 13) ``O`` if an externally-built ("out-of-tree") module has been loaded. + + 14) ``E`` if an unsigned module has been loaded in a kernel supporting + module signature. + + 15) ``L`` if a soft lockup has previously occurred on the system. + + 16) ``K`` if the kernel has been live patched. + +The primary reason for the **'Tainted: '** string is to tell kernel +debuggers if this is a clean kernel or if anything unusual has +occurred. Tainting is permanent: even if an offending module is +unloaded, the tainted value remains to indicate that the kernel is not +trustworthy. |