Farewell ISDN, Ham Radio & Old Network Drivers: Linus Torvalds Merges 138k L.O.C. Removal
Linus Torvalds did it! He merged the pull request to rid the Linux kernel of the old Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem and various other old network drivers largely for PCMCIA era network adapters. This was the code suggested for removal given the recent influx of AI/LLM-generated bug reports against this dated code that likely has no active upstream users remaining.
It's been a fast-paced week with the patch series to remove old network drivers due to AI-driven bug reports now making these drivers for outdated network hardware a burden. Drivers for old/obsolete hardware has remained in the upstream kernel as long as there are active users and keeping the code around hasn't been a burden on developers or there are developers actively interested in maintaining the code. But now with the large language models and increased code fuzzing finding potential issues with these drivers for obsolete hardware, it's easier to just get rid of these drivers if no one is actively using the hardware from decades ago.
Yesterday the pull request was submitted to remove the old drivers and today Linus Torvalds went ahead and merged it without any fuss.
This merge lightens the kernel by 138,161 lines of code with ISDN gone and numerous old network adapters and also getting rid of legacy ATM device drivers as well as the amateur ham radio support. The main networking drivers removed affect the 3com 3c509 / 3c515 / 3c574 / 3c589, AMD Lance, AMD NMCLAN, SMSC SMC9194 / SMC91C92, Fujitsu FMVJ18X, and 8390 AX88190 / Ultra / WD80X3.
Linux 7.1 also has removed the long-obsolete bus mouse support as well as beginning to phase out Intel 486 CPU support and removing support for Russia's Baikal CPUs.
It's been a fast-paced week with the patch series to remove old network drivers due to AI-driven bug reports now making these drivers for outdated network hardware a burden. Drivers for old/obsolete hardware has remained in the upstream kernel as long as there are active users and keeping the code around hasn't been a burden on developers or there are developers actively interested in maintaining the code. But now with the large language models and increased code fuzzing finding potential issues with these drivers for obsolete hardware, it's easier to just get rid of these drivers if no one is actively using the hardware from decades ago.
Yesterday the pull request was submitted to remove the old drivers and today Linus Torvalds went ahead and merged it without any fuss.
This merge lightens the kernel by 138,161 lines of code with ISDN gone and numerous old network adapters and also getting rid of legacy ATM device drivers as well as the amateur ham radio support. The main networking drivers removed affect the 3com 3c509 / 3c515 / 3c574 / 3c589, AMD Lance, AMD NMCLAN, SMSC SMC9194 / SMC91C92, Fujitsu FMVJ18X, and 8390 AX88190 / Ultra / WD80X3.
Linux 7.1 also has removed the long-obsolete bus mouse support as well as beginning to phase out Intel 486 CPU support and removing support for Russia's Baikal CPUs.