How can I know what is tainting my kernel

[Greg KH]

On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 01:18:47AM +0100, Jonathan Neuschäfer wrote:
> 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.

Really?  As the person who added TAINT_CRAP to the kernel, for some
foolish reason I thought that was the 10th bit, not the 11th bit, which
would be 1024, right?

> > > 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.

TAINT_OOT_MODULE is not in 3.0.

greg k-h