netdev - Re: [PATCH net-next v2] net: ethernet: neterion: s2io: remove unused driver

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.21.2601270110590.40317@angie.orcam.me.uk>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2026 01:19:34 +0000 (GMT)
From: "Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro@...am.me.uk>
To: Ethan Nelson-Moore <enelsonmoore@...il.com>
cc: netdev@...r.kernel.org, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, 
    linux-pci@...r.kernel.org, linux-mips@...r.kernel.org, 
    linux-s390@...r.kernel.org, Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>, 
    Linas Vepstas <linasvepstas@...il.com>, 
    Mahesh J Salgaonkar <mahesh@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Oliver O'Halloran <oohall@...il.com>, Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@...gle.com>, 
    "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>, 
    Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>, Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>, 
    Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>, Simon Horman <horms@...nel.org>, 
    Thomas Bogendoerfer <tsbogend@...ha.franken.de>, 
    Madhavan Srinivasan <maddy@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>, Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@...il.com>, 
    "Christophe Leroy (CS GROUP)" <chleroy@...nel.org>, 
    Heiko Carstens <hca@...ux.ibm.com>, Vasily Gorbik <gor@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Alexander Gordeev <agordeev@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Sven Schnelle <svens@...ux.ibm.com>, Andrew Lunn <andrew+netdev@...n.ch>, 
    Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, 
    Martin Kepplinger-Novaković <martink@...teo.de>, 
    Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>, MD Danish Anwar <danishanwar@...com>, 
    Mengyuan Lou <mengyuanlou@...-swift.com>, 
    Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@...filter.org>, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@...e.de>, 
    Huacai Chen <chenhuacai@...nel.org>, Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>, 
    Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...gle.com>, 
    Madadi Vineeth Reddy <vineethr@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Shrikanth Hegde <sshegde@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@...ux-m68k.org>, 
    Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>, 
    "Martin K. Petersen" <martin.petersen@...cle.com>, 
    Frederic Barrat <fbarrat@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Andrew Donnellan <ajd@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Herbert Xu <herbert@...dor.apana.org.au>, 
    Konstantin Shkolnyy <kshk@...ux.ibm.com>, 
    Vadim Fedorenko <vadim.fedorenko@...ux.dev>, 
    Lorenzo Bianconi <lorenzo@...nel.org>, 
    Lukas Bulwahn <lukas.bulwahn@...hat.com>, Dong Yibo <dong100@...se.com>, 
    Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com>, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...nel.org>, 
    Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>, Lukas Wunner <lukas@...ner.de>, 
    Giovanni Cabiddu <giovanni.cabiddu@...el.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next v2] net: ethernet: neterion: s2io: remove unused
 driver

On Sun, 25 Jan 2026, Ethan Nelson-Moore wrote:

> The s2io driver supports Exar (formerly Neterion and S2io) PCI-X 10
> Gigabit Ethernet cards. Hardware supporting PCI-X has not been
> manufactured in years. On x86, it was quickly replaced by PCIe. While
> it stuck around longer on POWER hardware, the last POWER hardware to
> support it was POWER7, which is not supported by ppc64le Linux
> distributions. The last supported mainstream ppc64 Linux distribution
> was RHEL 7; while it is still supported under ELS, ELS is only
> available for x86 and IBM Z. It is possible to use many PCI-X cards in
> standard PCI slots (which are still available on new motherboards), but
> it does not make sense to do so for 10 Gigabit Ethernet because the
> maximum bandwidth of standard PCI is only 1067 Mbps. It is therefore

 However 64-bit PCI at 66MHz will let you reach 4 times as much.  Also 
PCI-X can be bridged from PCIe or HT.

> highly unlikely that this driver is still being used. Remove the
> driver, and move the former maintainer to the CREDITS file (restoring
> credit for the vxge driver, which was removed in commit f05643a0f60b
> ("eth: remove neterion/vxge").

 How do you know it's not used?  What's the gain from removing a driver 
unless say it's broken and does not build?

  Maciej