1 The following is a list of files and features that are going to be
2 removed in the kernel source tree. Every entry should contain what
3 exactly is going away, why it is happening, and who is going to be doing
4 the work. When the feature is removed from the kernel, it should also
5 be removed from this file.
7 ---------------------------
11 Why: Old mxser driver is obsoleted by the mxser_new. Give it some time yet
13 Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com>
15 ---------------------------
17 What: V4L2 VIDIOC_G_MPEGCOMP and VIDIOC_S_MPEGCOMP
19 Why: Broken attempt to set MPEG compression parameters. These ioctls are
20 not able to implement the wide variety of parameters that can be set
21 by hardware MPEG encoders. A new MPEG control mechanism was created
22 in kernel 2.6.18 that replaces these ioctls. See the V4L2 specification
23 (section 1.9: Extended controls) for more information on this topic.
24 Who: Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@xs4all.nl> and
25 Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
27 ---------------------------
29 What: dev->power.power_state
31 Why: Broken design for runtime control over driver power states, confusing
32 driver-internal runtime power management with: mechanisms to support
33 system-wide sleep state transitions; event codes that distinguish
34 different phases of swsusp "sleep" transitions; and userspace policy
35 inputs. This framework was never widely used, and most attempts to
36 use it were broken. Drivers should instead be exposing domain-specific
37 interfaces either to kernel or to userspace.
38 Who: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz>
40 ---------------------------
42 What: old NCR53C9x driver
44 Why: Replaced by the much better esp_scsi driver. Actual low-level
45 driver can be ported over almost trivially.
46 Who: David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
47 Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
49 ---------------------------
51 What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
53 Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h
54 Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API. during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
55 series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
56 means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
57 already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
58 Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle
59 old calls, replacing to newer ones.
60 Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
61 communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
62 V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
63 Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@brturbo.com.br>
65 ---------------------------
67 What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
69 Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
70 Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a
71 normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel
72 infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA
73 control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is
74 unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the
75 PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more
76 difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either
77 handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new
78 pcmciautils package available at
79 http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/
80 Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
82 ---------------------------
84 What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
86 Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
88 Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
89 use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
90 implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
91 prevents bugs and code duplication
92 Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
94 ---------------------------
96 What: CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING
98 Why: Config option is there to see if gcc is good enough. (in january
99 2006). If it is, the behavior should just be the default. If it's not,
100 the option should just go away entirely.
101 Who: Arjan van de Ven
103 ---------------------------
105 What: eepro100 network driver
107 Why: replaced by the e100 driver
108 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
110 ---------------------------
112 What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
113 (temporary transition config option provided until then)
114 The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
116 Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
117 and are often a sign of "wrong API"
118 Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
120 ---------------------------
122 What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
124 Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
125 Why: The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
126 possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
127 that operate as fast as the USB bus allows. Because of this, the USB
128 subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
129 register with it, after this grace period is over. If anyone needs
130 any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
131 userspace filesystems, please contact the
132 linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
133 there will be glad to help you out.
134 Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
136 ---------------------------
138 What: filemap_nopage, filemap_populate
140 Why: These legacy interfaces no longer have any callers in the kernel and
141 any functionality provided can be provided with filemap_fault. The
142 removal schedule is short because they are a big maintainence burden
144 Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
146 ---------------------------
148 What: vm_ops.populate, install_page
150 Why: These legacy interfaces no longer have any callers in the kernel and
151 any functionality provided can be provided with vm_ops.fault.
152 Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
154 ---------------------------
157 When: February 2008, provided in-kernel callers have been converted
158 Why: This interface is replaced by vm_ops.fault, but it has been around
159 forever, is used by a lot of drivers, and doesn't cost much to
161 Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
163 ---------------------------
165 What: Interrupt only SA_* flags
167 Why: The interrupt related SA_* flags are replaced by IRQF_* to move them
168 out of the signal namespace.
170 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
172 ---------------------------
174 What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment
176 Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and
178 Class devices should not carry any of these properties, and bus
179 devices have SUBSYTEM and DRIVER as a replacement.
180 Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de>
182 ---------------------------
186 Why: i2c-isa is a non-sense and doesn't fit in the device driver
187 model. Drivers relying on it are better implemented as platform
189 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
191 ---------------------------
193 What: i2c_adapter.list
195 Why: Superfluous, this list duplicates the one maintained by the driver
197 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>,
198 David Brownell <dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net>
200 ---------------------------
202 What: drivers depending on OBSOLETE_OSS
203 When: options in 2.6.22, code in 2.6.24
204 Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
205 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
207 ---------------------------
209 What: /sys/firmware/acpi/namespace
211 Why: The ACPI namespace is effectively the symbol list for
212 the BIOS. The device names are completely arbitrary
213 and have no place being exposed to user-space.
215 For those interested in the BIOS ACPI namespace,
216 the BIOS can be extracted and disassembled with acpidump
217 and iasl as documented in the pmtools package here:
218 http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/lenb/acpi/utils
219 Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
221 ---------------------------
223 What: ACPI procfs interface
225 Why: After ACPI sysfs conversion, ACPI attributes will be duplicated
226 in sysfs and the ACPI procfs interface should be removed.
227 Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
229 ---------------------------
231 What: /proc/acpi/button
233 Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer
235 Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
237 ---------------------------
239 What: Compaq touchscreen device emulation
241 Files: drivers/input/tsdev.c
242 Why: The code says it was obsolete when it was written in 2001.
243 tslib is a userspace library which does anything tsdev can do and
244 much more besides in userspace where this code belongs. There is no
245 longer any need for tsdev and applications should have converted to
247 The name "tsdev" is also extremely confusing and lots of people have
248 it loaded when they don't need/use it.
249 Who: Richard Purdie <rpurdie@rpsys.net>
251 ---------------------------
253 What: read_dev_chars(), read_conf_data{,_lpm}() (s390 common I/O layer)
255 Why: These functions are a leftover from 2.4 times. They have several
257 - Duplication of checks that are done in the device driver's
259 - common I/O layer can't do device specific error recovery
260 - device driver can't be notified for conditions happening during
261 execution of the function
262 Device drivers should issue the read device characteristics and read
263 configuration data ccws and do the appropriate error handling
265 Who: Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@de.ibm.com>
267 ---------------------------
269 What: i2c-ixp2000, i2c-ixp4xx and scx200_i2c drivers
271 Why: Obsolete. The new i2c-gpio driver replaces all hardware-specific
272 I2C-over-GPIO drivers.
273 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
275 ---------------------------
277 What: 'time' kernel boot parameter
279 Why: replaced by 'printk.time=<value>' so that printk timestamps can be
280 enabled or disabled as needed
281 Who: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
283 ---------------------------
285 What: drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE
286 When: options in 2.6.23, code in 2.6.25
287 Why: obsolete OSS drivers
288 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
290 ---------------------------
292 What: libata spindown skipping and warning
294 Why: Some halt(8) implementations synchronize caches for and spin
295 down libata disks because libata didn't use to spin down disk on
296 system halt (only synchronized caches).
297 Spin down on system halt is now implemented. sysfs node
298 /sys/class/scsi_disk/h:c:i:l/manage_start_stop is present if
299 spin down support is available.
300 Because issuing spin down command to an already spun down disk
301 makes some disks spin up just to spin down again, libata tracks
302 device spindown status to skip the extra spindown command and
304 This is to give userspace tools the time to get updated and will
305 be removed after userspace is reasonably updated.
306 Who: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com>
308 ---------------------------
310 What: Legacy RTC drivers (under drivers/i2c/chips)
312 Why: Obsolete. We have a RTC subsystem with better drivers.
313 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
315 ---------------------------
317 What: iptables SAME target
319 Files: net/ipv4/netfilter/ipt_SAME.c, include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_SAME.h
320 Why: Obsolete for multiple years now, NAT core provides the same behaviour.
321 Unfixable broken wrt. 32/64 bit cleanness.
322 Who: Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>
324 ---------------------------
326 What: The arch/ppc and include/asm-ppc directories
328 Why: The arch/powerpc tree is the merged architecture for ppc32 and ppc64
329 platforms. Currently there are efforts underway to port the remaining
330 arch/ppc platforms to the merged tree. New submissions to the arch/ppc
331 tree have been frozen with the 2.6.22 kernel release and that tree will
332 remain in bug-fix only mode until its scheduled removal. Platforms
333 that are not ported by June 2008 will be removed due to the lack of an
334 interested maintainer.
335 Who: linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org
337 ---------------------------
339 What: mthca driver's MSI support
341 Files: drivers/infiniband/hw/mthca/*.[ch]
342 Why: All mthca hardware also supports MSI-X, which provides
343 strictly more functionality than MSI. So there is no point in
344 having both MSI-X and MSI support in the driver.
345 Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
347 ---------------------------