Strange message while starting up: "spl: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel."

TrueNAS General
1

I have seen the following messages while booting up TrueNAS 25.10.2.1. Should I worry?

<snip>

Begin: Loading essential drivers ... done.
Begin: Running/scripts/init-premount ... done
Begin: Mounting root file system ... Begin: Running scripts/nfs-top ... done.
Begin: Running scripts/nfs-premount ... done.
Begin: Running scripts/local-top ... done.
Begin: Running scripts/local-premount done.
[    5.814089] spl: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[    5.816755] spl: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[    5.856667] zfs: module license 'CDDL' taints kernel.
[    5.859490] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[    5.862353] zfs: module license taints kernel.
[    7.155349] ZFS: Loaded module v2.3.4-1, ZFS pool version 5000, ZFS filesystem version 5
Begin: Sleeping for ... done.
Begin: Importing ZFS root pool 'boot-pool' ... Begin: Importing pool "boot-pool" using defaults ... done.
done.

<snip>
2

Indicates that a non-standard, externally-built, or proprietary module has been loaded by the kernel. This kernel taint is common in Truenas and I have seen similar in the past.

3

Someone should make a feature request to disable loading this “zfs” module during boot. Is it even needed?

1 Like
4

If you have a problem and seek help from the Linux kernel developers, this tells them that the kernel is running something that they do not maintain. Nothing more, nothing less, and totally expected in TrueNAS.

1 Like