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Vboxdrvr has been marked "tainted crap" by Kernel dev

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    Vboxdrvr has been marked "tainted crap" by Kernel dev

    http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=OTk5Mw

    Linux kernel developers have marked Oracle's VirtualBox Linux kernel driver as "tainted crap" due to the overwhelming number of problems this module has caused.

    When the "vboxdrv" driver for the Linux kernel is loaded, after a patch by Red Hat's Dave Jones, it will mark the kernel as tainted crap. Even though this VirtualBox driver is open-source (it's under the GPL), the quality of the driver is quite poor and continues to cause issues for many users. In particular, kernel developers have become frustrated that this virtualization driver is causing random memory corruption. Specifically cited is "corrupt linked lists, corrupt page tables, and just plain 'weird' crashes."

    The code comment for the patch mentions, "vbox is garbage." The VirtualBox kernel driver is needed for providing some features to guests on this Sun/Oracle virtualization platform. While the VirtualBox kernel driver is open-source, it doesn't live within the mainline kernel tree and is distributed separately with the VirtualBox software package.

    Marking this driver as "crap" puts it in the same boat as the staging drivers and select other modules that are of less quality than the fully-supported in-tree modules. With this tainting, some bug reporting tools will not report these VirtualBox problems or handle any bug reports in a different manner.
    Personally, I have never experienced a problem running VB with a variety of guests, and a couple days ago I upgraded to Oracle's newest release. It, too, is running without problems for me.
    "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
    – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.

    #2
    Re: Vboxdrvr has been marked "tainted crap" by Kernel dev

    Same here. Use it quite a bit and never have issues. Strange indeed.

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      #3
      Re: Vboxdrvr has been marked "tainted crap" by Kernel dev

      I rely on VB daily for production work: that is, what pays my salary. I'd have to say it's one of the more stable pieces of software I've used, other than a glitch in 4.1.2 that caused mouse cursors in Windows 7 guests to behave goofily.

      "Tainted crap"? Are we even allowed to say that in a family-friendly forum?

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Vboxdrvr has been marked "tainted crap" by Kernel dev



        "Tainted" -- a harmless adjective
        "Crap" -- A noun derived from, and to express the material that the device significantly improved upon by Thomas Crapper was supposed to receive.
        "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
        – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Vboxdrvr has been marked "tainted crap" by Kernel dev

          You're such a tease

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Vboxdrvr has been marked "tainted crap" by Kernel dev

            That's what my wife says. 8)
            "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
            – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.

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