insmod error

[Aruna Hewapathirane]

<snip>
>> Please help me out to understand below message mean.

>> ubuntu at ubuntu-armhf:/home/Madhu/i2c$ dmesg
>> [  704.283100] i2c_client: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
>> [  704.285359] driver initialization
>> [  704.285693] inside probe function

What you should pay attention to more than worry about the out-of-tree
module is the text immediately following that. Says "taints kernel" right ?
What exactly that means is if you have problems later on with this kernel
and require debugging or community support to identify then resolve a bug
there will be no community support.

When the kernel is tainted, it means that *it is in a state that is not
supported by the community*. Most kernel developers will ignore bug reports
involving tainted kernels, and community members may ask that you correct
the tainting condition before they can proceed with diagnosing problems
related to the kernel. In addition, some debugging functionality and API
calls may be disabled when the kernel is tainted.
[ reference:
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/118116/linux-what-is-a-tainted-kernel
]

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.
[ reference:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.html?highlight=tainted
]

Looking at your dmesg output you posted your module initialized ok and your
probe was called ok but if shit happens down the road your on your own.
Meaning if you ask for help most folks will ask you to fix the taint issue
before taking a look at your code :)

Hope this helps - Aruna


>
> Regards,
> Madhu
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kernelnewbies mailing list
> Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> https://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/pipermail/kernelnewbies/attachments/20170211/03b3cfaf/attachment.html