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 ---------------------------
9 What: RAW driver (CONFIG_RAW_DRIVER)
11 Why: declared obsolete since kernel 2.6.3
12 O_DIRECT can be used instead
13 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
15 ---------------------------
17 What: drivers that were depending on OBSOLETE_OSS_DRIVER
18 (config options already removed)
20 Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
21 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
23 ---------------------------
25 What: raw1394: requests of type RAW1394_REQ_ISO_SEND, RAW1394_REQ_ISO_LISTEN
27 Why: Deprecated in favour of the new ioctl-based rawiso interface, which is
28 more efficient. You should really be using libraw1394 for raw1394
30 Who: Jody McIntyre <scjody@modernduck.com>
32 ---------------------------
34 What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
36 Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API. during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
37 series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
38 means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
39 already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
40 Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle
41 old calls, replacing to newer ones.
42 Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
43 communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
44 V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
45 Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@brturbo.com.br>
47 ---------------------------
49 What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
51 Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
52 Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a
53 normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel
54 infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA
55 control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is
56 unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the
57 PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more
58 difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either
59 handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new
60 pcmciautils package available at
61 http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/
62 Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
64 ---------------------------
66 What: ip_queue and ip6_queue (old ipv4-only and ipv6-only netfilter queue)
68 Why: This interface has been obsoleted by the new layer3-independent
69 "nfnetlink_queue". The Kernel interface is compatible, so the old
70 ip[6]tables "QUEUE" targets still work and will transparently handle
71 all packets into nfnetlink queue number 0. Userspace users will have
72 to link against API-compatible library on top of libnfnetlink_queue
73 instead of the current 'libipq'.
74 Who: Harald Welte <laforge@netfilter.org>
76 ---------------------------
78 What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
80 Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
81 Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
82 use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
83 implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
84 prevents bugs and code duplication
85 Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
87 ---------------------------
89 What: CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING
91 Why: Config option is there to see if gcc is good enough. (in january
92 2006). If it is, the behavior should just be the default. If it's not,
93 the option should just go away entirely.
96 ---------------------------
98 What: START_ARRAY ioctl for md
100 Files: drivers/md/md.c
101 Why: Not reliable by design - can fail when most needed.
103 Who: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
105 ---------------------------
107 What: eepro100 network driver
109 Why: replaced by the e100 driver
110 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
112 ---------------------------
114 What: drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE_DRIVER
115 When: options in 2.6.20, code in 2.6.22
116 Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
117 Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
119 ---------------------------
121 What: pci_module_init(driver)
123 Why: Is replaced by pci_register_driver(pci_driver).
124 Who: Richard Knutsson <ricknu-0@student.ltu.se> and Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
126 ---------------------------
128 What: Usage of invalid timevals in setitimer
130 Why: POSIX requires to validate timevals in the setitimer call. This
131 was never done by Linux. The invalid (e.g. negative timevals) were
132 silently converted to more or less random timeouts and intervals.
133 Until the removal a per boot limited number of warnings is printed
134 and the timevals are sanitized.
136 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
138 ---------------------------
140 What: I2C interface of the it87 driver
142 Why: The ISA interface is faster and should be always available. The I2C
143 probing is also known to cause trouble in at least one case (see
145 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
147 ---------------------------
149 What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
150 (temporary transition config option provided until then)
151 The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
153 Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
154 and are often a sign of "wrong API"
155 Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
157 ---------------------------
159 What: mount/umount uevents
161 Why: These events are not correct, and do not properly let userspace know
162 when a file system has been mounted or unmounted. Userspace should
163 poll the /proc/mounts file instead to detect this properly.
164 Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
166 ---------------------------
168 What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
170 Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
171 Why: The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
172 possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
173 that operate as fast as the USB bus allows. Because of this, the USB
174 subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
175 register with it, after this grace period is over. If anyone needs
176 any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
177 userspace filesystems, please contact the
178 linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
179 there will be glad to help you out.
180 Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
182 ---------------------------
184 What: find_trylock_page
186 Why: The interface no longer has any callers left in the kernel. It
187 is an odd interface (compared with other find_*_page functions), in
188 that it does not take a refcount to the page, only the page lock.
189 It should be replaced with find_get_page or find_lock_page if possible.
190 This feature removal can be reevaluated if users of the interface
191 cannot cleanly use something else.
192 Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
194 ---------------------------
196 What: Support for the MIPS EV96100 evaluation board
198 Why: Does no longer build since at least November 15, 2003, apparently
200 Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
202 ---------------------------
204 What: Support for the Momentum / PMC-Sierra Jaguar ATX evaluation board
206 Why: Does no longer build since quite some time, and was never popular,
207 due to the platform being replaced by successor models. Apparently
208 no user base left. It also is one of the last users of
210 Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
212 ---------------------------
214 What: Support for the Momentum Ocelot, Ocelot 3, Ocelot C and Ocelot G
216 Why: Some do no longer build and apparently there is no user base left
218 Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
220 ---------------------------
222 What: Support for MIPS Technologies' Altas and SEAD evaluation board
224 Why: Some do no longer build and apparently there is no user base left
225 for these platforms. Hardware out of production since several years.
226 Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
228 ---------------------------
230 What: Support for the IT8172-based platforms, ITE 8172G and Globespan IVR
232 Why: Code does no longer build since at least 2.6.0, apparently there is
233 no user base left for these platforms. Hardware out of production
234 since several years and hardly a trace of the manufacturer left on
236 Who: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
238 ---------------------------
240 What: Interrupt only SA_* flags
242 Why: The interrupt related SA_* flags are replaced by IRQF_* to move them
243 out of the signal namespace.
245 Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
247 ---------------------------
249 What: i2c-ite and i2c-algo-ite drivers
251 Why: These drivers never compiled since they were added to the kernel
252 tree 5 years ago. This feature removal can be reevaluated if
253 someone shows interest in the drivers, fixes them and takes over
255 http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-mips&m=115040510817448
256 Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
258 ---------------------------
260 What: Bridge netfilter deferred IPv4/IPv6 output hook calling
262 Why: The deferred output hooks are a layering violation causing unusual
263 and broken behaviour on bridge devices. Examples of things they
264 break include QoS classifation using the MARK or CLASSIFY targets,
265 the IPsec policy match and connection tracking with VLANs on a
266 bridge. Their only use is to enable bridge output port filtering
267 within iptables with the physdev match, which can also be done by
268 combining iptables and ebtables using netfilter marks. Until it
269 will get removed the hook deferral is disabled by default and is
270 only enabled when needed.
272 Who: Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>
274 ---------------------------