In a recent development, Andrew Lunn, the maintainer of 9 subsystems in the Linux kernel responsible for network drivers, has released a set of patches that aim to remove drivers for Ethernet adapters with ISA and PCMCIA interfaces from the kernel. These old drivers, which were previously low maintenance, have now become a burden due to the increased workload on maintainers caused by advanced AI tools and fuzzing testing systems used to identify errors in the kernel.
Andrew believes that fixing these outdated drivers, which are likely not in use anymore, is unnecessary and suggests their removal from the kernel. The set of patches submitted for review includes the removal of 18 drivers for Ethernet devices with ISA and PCMCIA interfaces manufactured before 2002. If approved by Linus Torvalds, this removal could take place in the Linux kernel 7.2, scheduled for mid-August.
The drivers proposed for removal include 3com 3c509, 3c515, 3c574, 3c589, and 3c59x for 3Com EtherLinkIII, EtherLink XL “Corkscrew” series, “RoadRunner,” and “Vortex,” as well as amd hplance, mvme147, 7990 lance, and nmclan for HP300, Motorola MVME147 SBC, AMD PCnet32, and more.
Other drivers on the list are smsc smc9194, smc91c92, cirrus cs89x0, mac89x0, fujitsu fmvj18x, xircom xirc2ps, and 8390 AX88190, pcnet, ultra, wd80x3. Users have raised concerns about the removal of these drivers, citing equipment in their infrastructures that still rely on them, such as Motorola MVME147, mac89x0, and 3com 3c905-B. Additionally, it has been pointed out that these uninstalled drivers may be necessary for retro Alpha, SPARC, PA-RISC, and 68000 systems.