Users Guide

142 Installing Managed System Software on Supported Linux Operating Systems
Forcing Dynamic Kernel Support on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update Releases
When Kernel is Tainted
Server Administrator provides precompiled device drivers for the "Gold" releases
of supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems. Red Hat Enterprise
Linux supports loading device drivers built for the "Gold" release, on the Update
releases. This means Server Administrator does not have to ship precompiled
device drivers for every Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release and users are
not forced to use DKS in order to run Server Administrator on every system that
is running a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release. However, loading a device
driver built for the "Gold" release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (version 4) on an
Update release may taint the kernel. If the kernel on a system running a Red Hat
Enterprise Linux (version 4) Update release has been tainted by this device
driver load process, Server Administrator’s init script command restart-
forcekernelmatch can be used to force DKS to be used in this situation. DKS
will build device drivers that do not taint the running kernel.
Determining if the Running Kernel is Tainted
After Server Administrator services have been started, perform the following
steps on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update releases to determine if the kernel
has been tainted:
1
Log in as root .
2 Execute the following command:
lsmod
If you see Tainted: GF in the first line of the output as in the following
message, the running kernel is tainted:
Module Size Used by Tainted: GF
The "tainted" status may be caused by the Server Administrator device driver
load process.