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diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f718a2eaf --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst @@ -0,0 +1,164 @@ +Tainted kernels +--------------- + +The kernel will mark itself as 'tainted' when something occurs that might be +relevant later when investigating problems. Don't worry too much about this, +most of the time it's not a problem to run a tainted kernel; the information is +mainly of interest once someone wants to investigate some problem, as its real +cause might be the event that got the kernel tainted. That's why bug reports +from tainted kernels will often be ignored by developers, hence try to reproduce +problems with an untainted kernel. + +Note the kernel will remain tainted even after you undo what caused the taint +(i.e. unload a proprietary kernel module), to indicate the kernel remains not +trustworthy. That's also why the kernel will print the tainted state when it +notices an internal problem (a 'kernel bug'), a recoverable error +('kernel oops') or a non-recoverable error ('kernel panic') and writes debug +information about this to the logs ``dmesg`` outputs. It's also possible to +check the tainted state at runtime through a file in ``/proc/``. + + +Tainted flag in bugs, oops or panics messages +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +You find the tainted state near the top in a line starting with 'CPU:'; if or +why the kernel was tainted is shown after the Process ID ('PID:') and a shortened +name of the command ('Comm:') that triggered the event:: + + BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000000 + Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP PTI + CPU: 0 PID: 4424 Comm: insmod Tainted: P W O 4.20.0-0.rc6.fc30 #1 + Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS 0.5.1 01/01/2011 + RIP: 0010:my_oops_init+0x13/0x1000 [kpanic] + [...] + +You'll find a 'Not tainted: ' there if the kernel was not tainted at the +time of the event; if it was, then it will print 'Tainted: ' and characters +either letters or blanks. In above example it looks like this:: + + Tainted: P W O + +The meaning of those characters is explained in the table below. In this case +the kernel got tainted earlier because a proprietary Module (``P``) was loaded, +a warning occurred (``W``), and an externally-built module was loaded (``O``). +To decode other letters use the table below. + + +Decoding tainted state at runtime +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +At runtime, you can query the tainted state by reading +``cat /proc/sys/kernel/tainted``. If that returns ``0``, the kernel is not +tainted; any other number indicates the reasons why it is. The easiest way to +decode that number is the script ``tools/debugging/kernel-chktaint``, which your +distribution might ship as part of a package called ``linux-tools`` or +``kernel-tools``; if it doesn't you can download the script from +`git.kernel.org <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/plain/tools/debugging/kernel-chktaint>`_ +and execute it with ``sh kernel-chktaint``, which would print something like +this on the machine that had the statements in the logs that were quoted earlier:: + + Kernel is Tainted for following reasons: + * Proprietary module was loaded (#0) + * Kernel issued warning (#9) + * Externally-built ('out-of-tree') module was loaded (#12) + See Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst in the Linux kernel or + https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.html for + a more details explanation of the various taint flags. + Raw taint value as int/string: 4609/'P W O ' + +You can try to decode the number yourself. That's easy if there was only one +reason that got your kernel tainted, as in this case you can find the number +with the table below. If there were multiple reasons you need to decode the +number, as it is a bitfield, where each bit indicates the absence or presence of +a particular type of taint. It's best to leave that to the aforementioned +script, but if you need something quick you can use this shell command to check +which bits are set:: + + $ for i in $(seq 18); do echo $(($i-1)) $(($(cat /proc/sys/kernel/tainted)>>($i-1)&1));done + +Table for decoding tainted state +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +=== === ====== ======================================================== +Bit Log Number Reason that got the kernel tainted +=== === ====== ======================================================== + 0 G/P 1 proprietary module was loaded + 1 _/F 2 module was force loaded + 2 _/S 4 SMP kernel oops on an officially SMP incapable processor + 3 _/R 8 module was force unloaded + 4 _/M 16 processor reported a Machine Check Exception (MCE) + 5 _/B 32 bad page referenced or some unexpected page flags + 6 _/U 64 taint requested by userspace application + 7 _/D 128 kernel died recently, i.e. there was an OOPS or BUG + 8 _/A 256 ACPI table overridden by user + 9 _/W 512 kernel issued warning + 10 _/C 1024 staging driver was loaded + 11 _/I 2048 workaround for bug in platform firmware applied + 12 _/O 4096 externally-built ("out-of-tree") module was loaded + 13 _/E 8192 unsigned module was loaded + 14 _/L 16384 soft lockup occurred + 15 _/K 32768 kernel has been live patched + 16 _/X 65536 auxiliary taint, defined for and used by distros + 17 _/T 131072 kernel was built with the struct randomization plugin +=== === ====== ======================================================== + +Note: The character ``_`` is representing a blank in this table to make reading +easier. + +More detailed explanation for tainting +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + 0) ``G`` if all modules loaded have a GPL or compatible license, ``P`` if + any proprietary module has been loaded. Modules without a + MODULE_LICENSE or with a MODULE_LICENSE that is not recognised by + insmod as GPL compatible are assumed to be proprietary. + + 1) ``F`` if any module was force loaded by ``insmod -f``, ``' '`` if all + modules were loaded normally. + + 2) ``S`` if the oops occurred on an SMP kernel running on hardware that + hasn't been certified as safe to run multiprocessor. + Currently this occurs only on various Athlons that are not + SMP capable. + + 3) ``R`` if a module was force unloaded by ``rmmod -f``, ``' '`` if all + modules were unloaded normally. + + 4) ``M`` if any processor has reported a Machine Check Exception, + ``' '`` if no Machine Check Exceptions have occurred. + + 5) ``B`` If a page-release function has found a bad page reference or some + unexpected page flags. This indicates a hardware problem or a kernel bug; + there should be other information in the log indicating why this tainting + occurred. + + 6) ``U`` if a user or user application specifically requested that the + Tainted flag be set, ``' '`` otherwise. + + 7) ``D`` if the kernel has died recently, i.e. there was an OOPS or BUG. + + 8) ``A`` if an ACPI table has been overridden. + + 9) ``W`` if a warning has previously been issued by the kernel. + (Though some warnings may set more specific taint flags.) + + 10) ``C`` if a staging driver has been loaded. + + 11) ``I`` if the kernel is working around a severe bug in the platform + firmware (BIOS or similar). + + 12) ``O`` if an externally-built ("out-of-tree") module has been loaded. + + 13) ``E`` if an unsigned module has been loaded in a kernel supporting + module signature. + + 14) ``L`` if a soft lockup has previously occurred on the system. + + 15) ``K`` if the kernel has been live patched. + + 16) ``X`` Auxiliary taint, defined for and used by Linux distributors. + + 17) ``T`` Kernel was build with the randstruct plugin, which can intentionally + produce extremely unusual kernel structure layouts (even performance + pathological ones), which is important to know when debugging. Set at + build time. |