How can I know what is tainting my kernel

[Jonathan Neuschäfer]

On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 03:49:53PM -0800, Greg KH wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 08:23:32PM -0200, Daniel Hilst Selli wrote:
> > Two questions about taint system..
> > 
> > 1. I have a installation of archlinux with kernel 3.0, just after boot I 
> > cat /proc/sys/kenrel/tainted and receives 1024, but cat 
> > /var/log/messages | grep -i taint gives me no output. How can I know 
> > what is tainting my kernel?
> 
> Look for the "BIOS is broken..." message, 1024 is
> TAINT_FIRMWARE_WORKAROUND.

No, it's TAINT_CRAP.

> 
> > 2. I was studying char devices, and have writed some code. I have put 
> > the MODULE_LICENSE("GPL"); on the module, build it, put it on a initrd 
> > image and boot with qemu using -kernel and -initrd options. When I 
> > loadit with modprobe I receives a message on console saying that kernel 
> > was tainted and /proc/sys/kernel/tainted gives me 4024. There is any 
> > other thing on module, besides license that can taint the kernel?
> 
> Yes, lots of things, look at kernel.h for the full list.

It's also documented in Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt, but
TAINT_FIRMWARE_WORKAROUND and TAINT_OOT_MODULE are not.

Thanks,
	Jonathan Neuschäfer