A tainted kernel is one that is in an unsupported state because it cannot be guaranteed to function correctly. Most kernel developers will ignore bug reports involving tainted kernels, and community members may ask that you correct the tainting condition before they can proceed with diagnosing problems related to the kernel.
What is a tainted Linux kernel? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
A running instance of the Linux kernel becomes “tainted” when something dodgy happens. The kernel boots in non-tainted state, and becomes tainted if one such dodgy thing happens. The full list of dodgy events is documented in sysctl/kernel.txt, and the kernel's current taint state can be read from /proc/sys/kernel/tainted (0 means not tainted). The most common reason for tainting is loaded ...
My kernel keeps panicking when connected to a certain wireless network. I'd like to send a bug report but my kernel is apparently tainted. From /var/log/messages: Apr 17 21:28:22 Eiger kernel: [...
1 I think local_part is considered tainted. You need to replace $ {local_part} with $ {local_part_data} .
How to fix tainted domain in exim router - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
The java process that ended up being killed had PID 20639 whereas the output under the line that mentions VM Thread is CPU: 11 PID: 20646 Comm: VM Thread Not tainted 4.19.0-25-amd64 #1 Debian 4.19.289-2, so it's not a thread of the JVM.
I understand that kernels tainted by binary modules are less likely to be investigated by kernel maintainers. However what is the policy if kernel is tained by staging driver (if the staging driver is broken it is still problem in kernel hence some Linux developer might be interested).