kernel build says build is "dirty"?
 

I downloaded a new kernel from kernel.org and built it the same way as always, but it says it's dirty. Can someone explain what's going on?

linux-image-2.6.19.1-386-ge97e945e-dirty_rev.01_i386.deb

Does it say "dirty" or "tainted". If the latter it means you've compiled in something that isn't open source. It will work OK but its just a way of letting you know.

Not unusual to see "tainted" kernels in commercial environments.

linux-image-2.6.19.1-386-ge97e945e-dirty_rev.01_i386.deb

As you can see, the kernel is marked dirty in the name of the deb. It also appears with the dirty name in grub when I boot. I'm pretty sure, well I'm guessing anyway, that it's related to the fact that it's a kernel from kernel.org, rather than an official debian blessed kernel. But, it would be nice to know what's going on.

I finally found the answer: http://vmlinux.org/jocke/cgi-bin/blo...-modules.shtml