netdev - Re: Status of orphaned ltq_etop ethernet driver: mainline vs. OpenWRT

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Message-ID: <CAKxU2N_hKNbQ6fUssZkyvbog6SNJ=LdYNc_oMZnvonX=PRvtyA@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:07:20 -0800
From: Rosen Penev <rosenp@...il.com>
To: Hauke Mehrtens <hauke@...ke-m.de>
Cc: Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com>, John Crispin <john@...ozen.org>, 
	Daniel Golle <daniel@...rotopia.org>, Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>, 
	Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>, David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>, 
	Andrew Lunn <andrew+netdev@...n.ch>, "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>, 
	OpenWrt Development List <openwrt-devel@...ts.openwrt.org>
Subject: Re: Status of orphaned ltq_etop ethernet driver: mainline vs. OpenWRT

On Thu, Jan 29, 2026 at 12:36 PM Hauke Mehrtens <hauke@...ke-m.de> wrote:
>
> On 1/28/26 21:23, Heiner Kallweit wrote:
> > This driver in mainline lost its in-tree user with commit
> > cd93b4895ea5 ("MIPS: lantiq: drop mips_machine support")
> > in 2012. Since then it has had no in-tree user.
> >
> > Only (?) user seems to be OpenWRT, with several changes to
> > the in-tree driver version:
> > target/linux/lantiq/patches-6.12/035-owrt-lantiq-wifi-and-ethernet-eeprom-handling.patch
> > target/linux/lantiq/patches-6.12/028-NET-lantiq-various-etop-fixes.patch
> > target/linux/lantiq/patches-6.12/701-NET-lantiq-etop-of-mido.patch
> > So it seems the driver is maintained in OpenWrt only
> > (except tree-wide in-tree changes).
> >
> > To me this leaves two questions:
> > - Move this driver to OpenWRT completely?
> > - Or mainline all downstream changes, maintain driver in
> >    mainline, and mainline also the users of this driver?
> >
>
> Hi,
>
> I think dropping this from the mainline kernel is fine, if it causes
> efforts for you.
> This is the Ethernet of the Lantiq Danube SoC, the SoC is probably EoL
> since 15 years. I assume that all users either use the vendor SDK with
> Linux 2.6.X or OpenWrt.
>
> I will not spend much effort on this driver and others will probably
> also not spend much effort. We can move it completely into OpenWrt and
> keep it running there.
FWIW I have some cleanup commits on the driver. Would be great to have
the driver as C files to make editing easier...
>
> Hauke
>
> _______________________________________________
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> openwrt-devel@...ts.openwrt.org
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