Re: Non-Free
On Sun, May 09, 2004 at 12:19:28PM +0200, Bas Zoetekouw wrote:
> Hi Dave!
> You wrote:
> > Woody installed OK, but when I loaded the (binary) driver module for my
> > Belkin Network Card I got an error message that basically said the
> > driver module was a "non-free" piece and was not being linked into the
> > kernel for that reason. This is quite distressing. [...]
> Are you talking about messages like this one?
> "XXXXX: module license 'YYYYYY' taints kernel."
> In that case, it's just a warning and the module itself should load
> fine.
More to the point, it's not a Debian message, it's a kernel message,
added by the kernel developers, and will appear with any recent Linux
distribution (Red Hat, SuSE, whatever) if you try to include non-free
(or just plain too-old) kernel modules. Basically, it means that if
you have problems with the kernel, the kerel developers (Linus, et
al.) will not help you unless you can reproduce the problems without
that module installed.
> In case it's another message, could you please quote it in full?
Even if it's another message, it's still nothing to do with Debian.
Debian does not and will not prevent people from running non-free
software, even though we neither recommend nor fully support it.
> PS: debian-policy is a list on which internal Debian policies are
> discussed. Questions like this really belong on debian-devel.
I would say that debian-user is more appropriate myself, but whatever. :)
--
Chris Waters | Pneumonoultra- osis is too long
xtifr@debian.org | microscopicsilico- to fit into a single
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