policy on GPL'd drivers?

[Daniel C. Sobral]

David Leimbach wrote:
> I have the GPLd source to the nforce drivers for Linux
> to support the nVidia nforce and nforce2 drivers in the kernel.
> 
> To port these to FreeBSD would be an interesting task [if it hasn't
> already been done] and I have been looking for an excuse to get
> down and dirty with FBSD.
> [Yes... talk is cheap... just do it... Nike-a-go-go etc etc... :)]
> 
> What is the policy on drivers that are clearly going to have to be
> GPLd by the viral clause since I am referencing a GPL driver to do the
> porting work myself?  Are these allowed in the kernel?

Well, you can't have a GPL driver in the kernel. But, alas, what "in the 
kernel" means is a bit fuzzy. Basically, no GPL code will go in GENERIC, 
because GENERIC is what we distribute, and having any GPL code in it 
would automatically taint the rest of the kernel.

Also, there's some dispute on whether something that is linkable to the 
kernel, like a kernel module, would taint the kernel too. LGPL is 
preferred because there's no such doubts in this case. But I think the 
general consensus is that a kernel module can't taint the kernel.

This would cause trouble mostly for installation. A user, of course, is 
free to compile a kernel with all the GPL code he wants.

-- 
Daniel C. Sobral                   (8-DCS)
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