novaBBS - comp.misc - removing PCMCIA drivers

removing PCMCIA drivers

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From: fun...@amongus.com.invalid (Retrograde)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: removing PCMCIA drivers
Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2023 23:49:15 -0000 (UTC)
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by: Retrograde - Sat, 29 Apr 2023 23:49 UTC

From the «fond memories of early days» department:
Feed: Phoronix
Title: Linux 6.4 Goes Ahead And Starts Removing Old PCMCIA Drivers
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2023 11:00:00 -0400
Link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.4-Drops-Char-PCMCIA

As noted back in March, the plan with Linux 6.4 is to start removing old, unused
and unmaintained PCMCIA drivers. As part of that process to begin dropping old
PCMCIA/CardBus driver code from the kernel, all of the PCMCIA "char" drivers
were on the chopping block. Linus Torvalds pulled in the char/misc changes this
week for Linux 6.4 and indeed those drivers are now removed. Meanwhile this pull
introduced the new AMD CDX subsystem...

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Re: removing PCMCIA drivers

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From: mo0...@posteo.de (Marco Moock)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: removing PCMCIA drivers
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2023 10:55:36 +0200
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by: Marco Moock - Sun, 30 Apr 2023 08:55 UTC

Am 29.04.2023 um 23:49:15 Uhr schrieb Retrograde:

> From the «fond memories of early days» department:
> Feed: Phoronix
> Title: Linux 6.4 Goes Ahead And Starts Removing Old PCMCIA Drivers
> Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2023 11:00:00 -0400
> Link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.4-Drops-Char-PCMCIA
>
> As noted back in March, the plan with Linux 6.4 is to start removing
> old, unused and unmaintained PCMCIA drivers. As part of that process
> to begin dropping old PCMCIA/CardBus driver code from the kernel, all
> of the PCMCIA "char" drivers were on the chopping block. Linus
> Torvalds pulled in the char/misc changes this week for Linux 6.4 and
> indeed those drivers are now removed. Meanwhile this pull introduced
> the new AMD CDX subsystem...

Does that affect all PCMCIA cards or just specific to some controllers?

Re: removing PCMCIA drivers

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From: theom+n...@chiark.greenend.org.uk (Theo)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: removing PCMCIA drivers
Date: 30 Apr 2023 10:08:16 +0100 (BST)
Organization: University of Cambridge, England
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by: Theo - Sun, 30 Apr 2023 09:08 UTC

Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> wrote:
> Am 29.04.2023 um 23:49:15 Uhr schrieb Retrograde:
>
> > As noted back in March, the plan with Linux 6.4 is to start removing
> > old, unused and unmaintained PCMCIA drivers. As part of that process
> > to begin dropping old PCMCIA/CardBus driver code from the kernel, all
> > of the PCMCIA "char" drivers were on the chopping block. Linus
> > Torvalds pulled in the char/misc changes this week for Linux 6.4 and
> > indeed those drivers are now removed. Meanwhile this pull introduced
> > the new AMD CDX subsystem...
>
> Does that affect all PCMCIA cards or just specific to some controllers?

It looks to be specific PCMCIA cards, mostly smartcard readers.

Theo

Re: removing PCMCIA drivers

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From: not...@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev)
Subject: Re: removing PCMCIA drivers
Newsgroups: comp.misc
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by: Computer Nerd Kev - Sun, 30 Apr 2023 23:27 UTC

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> wrote:
>> Am 29.04.2023 um 23:49:15 Uhr schrieb Retrograde:
>>
>> > As noted back in March, the plan with Linux 6.4 is to start removing
>> > old, unused and unmaintained PCMCIA drivers. As part of that process
>> > to begin dropping old PCMCIA/CardBus driver code from the kernel, all
>> > of the PCMCIA "char" drivers were on the chopping block. Linus
>> > Torvalds pulled in the char/misc changes this week for Linux 6.4 and
>> > indeed those drivers are now removed. Meanwhile this pull introduced
>> > the new AMD CDX subsystem...
>>
>> Does that affect all PCMCIA cards or just specific to some controllers?
>
> It looks to be specific PCMCIA cards, mostly smartcard readers.

Long term it's pretty hard to tell because the only reference is
this kernel mailing list RFC that doesn't show any replies:
https://lore.kernel.org/all/Y07d7rMvd5++85BJ@owl.dominikbrodowski.net/

That suggests removing a lot more than just smartcard readers, but
offers three options, roughly: (a) "keep most", (b) "keep those that
look to be in use (based on development history)", and (c) "remove
PCMCIA support altogether". It's hard to tell whether the action
being taken is part of (a) or (b), but it doesn't look like it's
(c).

At the end a wide range of drivers are suggested for removal if
option (b) is taken. I don't see how commit history can be used to
judge usage. I've used one of the drivers marked "[-]" there for
removal. Should I have submitted a change to the driver adding a
comment: "/* Still works fine in kernel 6.2, nothing needs changing
*/", and then the driver would be retained becuase it's still
getting "activity" and therefore is in use? Seems like survival of
the least fit code to me.

But maybe they're not going with that approach anyway. It sounds
like the RFC message is just being used as justification by others
interested in dropping individual PCMCIA drivers at the moment.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

Any given program, when running, is obsolete.

computers / comp.misc / removing PCMCIA drivers

Subject	Author
removing PCMCIA drivers	Retrograde
Re: removing PCMCIA drivers	Marco Moock
Re: removing PCMCIA drivers	Theo
Re: removing PCMCIA drivers	Computer Nerd Kev