Linux Still Dealing With Quirky Firewire Devices As We Enter 2026
For Linux 6.19 as what will be the first stable kernel release of 2026, the IEEE-1394 Firewire stack continues dealing with device quirks and improving support for different Firewire-connected devices. In 2026 is also when the Linux Firewire maintainer plans to begin recommending users migrate away from the IEEE-1394 bus followed by closing the Linux Firewire efforts in 2029.
For the Linux 6.19 kernel the Firewire code has added support for handling per-device interoperability quirks. Linux Firewire maintainer Takashi Sakamoto -- who has committed to maintaining the kernel support until 2029 -- elaborated in the pull request on the new per-device interoperability quirks:
More Firewire audio devices will play nicely with Linux 6.19+... Not necessarily perfect, but at least "fewer issues" than on prior kernels.
The pull request also includes new code for the safer removal of the Firewire host card and handling of bus reset events. This aims to address a long-standing issue of miore than the past decade.
For the Linux 6.19 kernel the Firewire code has added support for handling per-device interoperability quirks. Linux Firewire maintainer Takashi Sakamoto -- who has committed to maintaining the kernel support until 2029 -- elaborated in the pull request on the new per-device interoperability quirks:
It is well known that some devices have quirks affecting interoperability. To identify such quirks at an early stages of device detection, the step for reading the configuration ROM contents has been changed. As a side effect, the entire detection process is now performed at the basic transaction speed (S100), without no trial to probe higher supported speeds. With this change, the following devices should now work with fewer issues:
- TASCAM FW-1884, FW-1804, and FW-1082
- MOTU Audio Express
More Firewire audio devices will play nicely with Linux 6.19+... Not necessarily perfect, but at least "fewer issues" than on prior kernels.
The pull request also includes new code for the safer removal of the Firewire host card and handling of bus reset events. This aims to address a long-standing issue of miore than the past decade.