Bug#419943: linux-2.6: CONFIG_PARAVIRT breaks some external modules
There's an ugly hack of a workaround in OpenAFS that looks like it will
deal with the current CONFIG_PARAVIRT brokenness at the cost of some
performance. I'll go that route with the next upload. Hopefully upstream
will remove the (incorrect) GPL-only designation on this interface soon.
NVidia, being non-free, I don't care about as much. I'll let someone else
will carry the torch for that.
maximilian attems <maks@sternwelten.at> writes:
> well than tell $company to fix their proprietary crap.
First of all, using core kernel interfaces that had previously always been
exported to modules (and that are pulled into modules by inline functions
in the kernel even when not called directly) is not broken. There was a
promise by the linux-kernel folks that interfaces that were previously
generally available would not be changed to GPL-only, which this
essentially breaks.
Second, OpenAFS is not proprietary crap. It might be DFSG-free crap, but
that's a different judgement. :) It is a file system released under an
DFSG-free license whose code predates Linux by several years and is
therefore clearly not a derivative work (and is occasionally used by Linus
as an example of a module that should not be forced to be GPL). It is in
Debian main. I realize that it's not your fault (and not even an
intentional decision), but it's frustrating to have RC bugs introduced in
one's package by changes to the kernel that are entirely unrelated and are
not technically necessary (by which I mean the labelling as GPL-only
because the interface is theoretically in flux, not the paravirt changes
themselves which I agree are very cool).
Even if there isn't anything we can do about it, please don't get
indignant at me for being upset that a free software package that we rely
on to be able to run Debian on production servers won't build against the
current Debian kernel.
OpenAFS doesn't even use any of the interfaces in question; they're pulled
in by inlined functions defined elsewhere in the kernel.
Out-of-tree kernel modules are not all proprietary crap. Some of them are
not GPL for reasons that have nothing to do with vendors and supposed
trade secrets; in this case, it was because OpenAFS is a huge body of code
that acquired hundreds or thousands of independent submissions under the
IBM Public License and at this point it's not feasible to relicense it.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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