netdev - Re: [PATCH net-next] pcnet32: remove VLB support

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Message-ID: <aWkfAQNO8PQes7sV@horms.kernel.org>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:08:17 +0000
From: Simon Horman <horms@...nel.org>
To: Thomas Bogendoerfer <tsbogend@...ha.franken.de>
Cc: "Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro@...am.me.uk>,
	Ethan Nelson-Moore <enelsonmoore@...il.com>,
	linux-mips@...r.kernel.org, netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next] pcnet32: remove VLB support

On Mon, Jan 12, 2026 at 11:09:05PM +0100, Thomas Bogendoerfer wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 11, 2026 at 12:40:56AM +0000, Maciej W. Rozycki wrote:
> > [+cc Thomas, linux-mips]
> > 
> > On Fri, 9 Jan 2026, Simon Horman wrote:
> > 
> > > > This allows the code managing device instances to be simplified
> > > > significantly. The VLB bus is very obsolete and last appeared on
> > > > P5 Pentium-era hardware. Support for it has been removed from
> > > > other drivers, and it is highly unlikely anyone is using it with
> > > > modern Linux kernels.
> > > > 
> > > > Signed-off-by: Ethan Nelson-Moore <enelsonmoore@...il.com>
> > > 
> > > Hi Ethan,
> > > 
> > > I don't think this driver has received much attention for some time.
> > > So, unless you have hardware to test changes on, I would suggest
> > > either leaving it alone or, if we suspect there are no users,
> > > removing it.
> > 
> >  You mean discarding the whole of drivers/net/ethernet/amd/pcnet32.c?  If 
> > so, then it's a hard NAK from me.  It's the onboard/netboot interface of 
> > the MIPS Malta platform and it continues being used regularly, primarily 
> > with QEMU setups, although I have actual Malta hardware in my lab too, 
> > usually running 24/7.  It's one of the primary MIPS plaforms, cf. 
> > arch/mips/configs/malta_defconfig.
> 
> I have a few more MIPS systems with PCnet32 chip on board. And this
> driver was the first network driver for VMware. I see no reason to
> remove it as it simply works.

Understood. Thanks for the valuable feedback.