8e9073ed02
The Linux ELF loader is quite complicated and messy code (that could probably need a rewrite, but that's a different chapter). One particular messy part in it is the support for non ELF a.out ld.sos. This was originally added to make transition from a.out to ELF easier because an a.out ELF ld.so could be still build using an older a.out toolkit. But by now that should be fully obsolete and removing it would clean up binfmt_elf.c up a bit. I propose to deprecate this support and remove for 2.6.25. Drawback is that someone still runs their system with a.out ld.so they would need to update the ld.so when updating to a new kernel. This patch just adds an entry to the deprecation file and a printk warning users. [akpm@linux-foundation.org: better warning message] Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
326 lines
12 KiB
Text
326 lines
12 KiB
Text
The following is a list of files and features that are going to be
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removed in the kernel source tree. Every entry should contain what
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exactly is going away, why it is happening, and who is going to be doing
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the work. When the feature is removed from the kernel, it should also
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be removed from this file.
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---------------------------
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What: MXSER
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When: December 2007
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Why: Old mxser driver is obsoleted by the mxser_new. Give it some time yet
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and remove it.
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Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com>
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---------------------------
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What: V4L2 VIDIOC_G_MPEGCOMP and VIDIOC_S_MPEGCOMP
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When: October 2007
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Why: Broken attempt to set MPEG compression parameters. These ioctls are
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not able to implement the wide variety of parameters that can be set
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by hardware MPEG encoders. A new MPEG control mechanism was created
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in kernel 2.6.18 that replaces these ioctls. See the V4L2 specification
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(section 1.9: Extended controls) for more information on this topic.
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Who: Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@xs4all.nl> and
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Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
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---------------------------
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What: dev->power.power_state
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When: July 2007
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Why: Broken design for runtime control over driver power states, confusing
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driver-internal runtime power management with: mechanisms to support
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system-wide sleep state transitions; event codes that distinguish
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different phases of swsusp "sleep" transitions; and userspace policy
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inputs. This framework was never widely used, and most attempts to
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use it were broken. Drivers should instead be exposing domain-specific
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interfaces either to kernel or to userspace.
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Who: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz>
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---------------------------
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What: old NCR53C9x driver
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When: October 2007
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Why: Replaced by the much better esp_scsi driver. Actual low-level
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driver can be ported over almost trivially.
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Who: David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
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Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
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---------------------------
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What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
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When: December 2006
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Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h
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Check: include/linux/video_decoder.h
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Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API. during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
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series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
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means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
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already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
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Newer drivers should use v4l_compat_translate_ioctl function to handle
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old calls, replacing to newer ones.
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Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
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communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
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V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
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Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@brturbo.com.br>
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---------------------------
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What: PCMCIA control ioctl (needed for pcmcia-cs [cardmgr, cardctl])
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When: November 2005
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Files: drivers/pcmcia/: pcmcia_ioctl.c
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Why: With the 16-bit PCMCIA subsystem now behaving (almost) like a
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normal hotpluggable bus, and with it using the default kernel
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infrastructure (hotplug, driver core, sysfs) keeping the PCMCIA
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control ioctl needed by cardmgr and cardctl from pcmcia-cs is
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unnecessary, and makes further cleanups and integration of the
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PCMCIA subsystem into the Linux kernel device driver model more
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difficult. The features provided by cardmgr and cardctl are either
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handled by the kernel itself now or are available in the new
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pcmciautils package available at
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http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/
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Who: Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
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What: a.out interpreter support for ELF executables
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When: 2.6.25
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Files: fs/binfmt_elf.c
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Why: Using a.out interpreters for ELF executables was a feature for
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transition from a.out to ELF. But now it is unlikely to be still
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needed anymore and removing it would simplify the hairy ELF
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loader code.
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Who: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
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---------------------------
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What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
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When: August 2006
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Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
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Check: kernel_thread
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Why: kernel_thread is a low-level implementation detail. Drivers should
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use the <linux/kthread.h> API instead which shields them from
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implementation details and provides a higherlevel interface that
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prevents bugs and code duplication
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Who: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
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---------------------------
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What: CONFIG_FORCED_INLINING
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When: June 2006
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Why: Config option is there to see if gcc is good enough. (in january
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2006). If it is, the behavior should just be the default. If it's not,
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the option should just go away entirely.
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Who: Arjan van de Ven
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---------------------------
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What: eepro100 network driver
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When: January 2007
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Why: replaced by the e100 driver
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Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
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---------------------------
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What: Unused EXPORT_SYMBOL/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL exports
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(temporary transition config option provided until then)
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The transition config option will also be removed at the same time.
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When: before 2.6.19
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Why: Unused symbols are both increasing the size of the kernel binary
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and are often a sign of "wrong API"
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Who: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
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What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
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When: February 2008
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Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
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Why: The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
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possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
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that operate as fast as the USB bus allows. Because of this, the USB
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subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
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register with it, after this grace period is over. If anyone needs
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any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
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userspace filesystems, please contact the
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linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
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there will be glad to help you out.
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Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
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---------------------------
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What: vm_ops.nopage
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When: Soon, provided in-kernel callers have been converted
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Why: This interface is replaced by vm_ops.fault, but it has been around
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forever, is used by a lot of drivers, and doesn't cost much to
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maintain.
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Who: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
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---------------------------
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What: Interrupt only SA_* flags
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When: September 2007
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Why: The interrupt related SA_* flags are replaced by IRQF_* to move them
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out of the signal namespace.
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Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
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What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment
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When: October 2008
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Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and
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inconsistent.
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Class devices should not carry any of these properties, and bus
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devices have SUBSYTEM and DRIVER as a replacement.
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Who: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@suse.de>
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---------------------------
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What: i2c_adapter.list
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When: July 2007
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Why: Superfluous, this list duplicates the one maintained by the driver
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core.
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Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>,
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David Brownell <dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net>
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---------------------------
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What: drivers depending on OBSOLETE_OSS
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When: options in 2.6.22, code in 2.6.24
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Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
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Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
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---------------------------
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What: ACPI procfs interface
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When: July 2008
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Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008.
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ACPI procfs interface will be removed in July 2008 so that
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there is enough time for the user space to catch up.
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Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
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What: /proc/acpi/button
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When: August 2007
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Why: /proc/acpi/button has been replaced by events to the input layer
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since 2.6.20.
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Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
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---------------------------
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What: /proc/acpi/event
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When: February 2008
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Why: /proc/acpi/event has been replaced by events via the input layer
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and netlink since 2.6.23.
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Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
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---------------------------
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What: i2c-ixp2000, i2c-ixp4xx and scx200_i2c drivers
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When: September 2007
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Why: Obsolete. The new i2c-gpio driver replaces all hardware-specific
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I2C-over-GPIO drivers.
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Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
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What: 'time' kernel boot parameter
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When: January 2008
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Why: replaced by 'printk.time=<value>' so that printk timestamps can be
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enabled or disabled as needed
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Who: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
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---------------------------
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What: drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE
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When: options in 2.6.23, code in 2.6.25
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Why: obsolete OSS drivers
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Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
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What: libata spindown skipping and warning
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When: Dec 2008
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Why: Some halt(8) implementations synchronize caches for and spin
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down libata disks because libata didn't use to spin down disk on
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system halt (only synchronized caches).
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Spin down on system halt is now implemented. sysfs node
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/sys/class/scsi_disk/h:c:i:l/manage_start_stop is present if
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spin down support is available.
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Because issuing spin down command to an already spun down disk
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makes some disks spin up just to spin down again, libata tracks
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device spindown status to skip the extra spindown command and
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warn about it.
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This is to give userspace tools the time to get updated and will
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be removed after userspace is reasonably updated.
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Who: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com>
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---------------------------
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What: Legacy RTC drivers (under drivers/i2c/chips)
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When: November 2007
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Why: Obsolete. We have a RTC subsystem with better drivers.
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Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
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---------------------------
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What: iptables SAME target
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When: 1.1. 2008
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Files: net/ipv4/netfilter/ipt_SAME.c, include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_SAME.h
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Why: Obsolete for multiple years now, NAT core provides the same behaviour.
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Unfixable broken wrt. 32/64 bit cleanness.
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Who: Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>
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---------------------------
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What: The arch/ppc and include/asm-ppc directories
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When: Jun 2008
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Why: The arch/powerpc tree is the merged architecture for ppc32 and ppc64
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platforms. Currently there are efforts underway to port the remaining
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arch/ppc platforms to the merged tree. New submissions to the arch/ppc
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tree have been frozen with the 2.6.22 kernel release and that tree will
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remain in bug-fix only mode until its scheduled removal. Platforms
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that are not ported by June 2008 will be removed due to the lack of an
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interested maintainer.
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Who: linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org
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---------------------------
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What: mthca driver's MSI support
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When: January 2008
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Files: drivers/infiniband/hw/mthca/*.[ch]
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Why: All mthca hardware also supports MSI-X, which provides
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strictly more functionality than MSI. So there is no point in
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having both MSI-X and MSI support in the driver.
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Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
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---------------------------
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What: sk98lin network driver
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When: Feburary 2008
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Why: In kernel tree version of driver is unmaintained. Sk98lin driver
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replaced by the skge driver.
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Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
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---------------------------
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What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks
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When: April 2008
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Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage
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location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package
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scripts, do not break.
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Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
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---------------------------
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What: shaper network driver
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When: January 2008
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Files: drivers/net/shaper.c, include/linux/if_shaper.h
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Why: This driver has been marked obsolete for many years.
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It was only designed to work on lower speed links and has design
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flaws that lead to machine crashes. The qdisc infrastructure in
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2.4 or later kernels, provides richer features and is more robust.
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Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
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---------------------------
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