Greg's Kernel Report: Android Drivers to Be Dropped, Same Possible Fate for Microsoft Hyper-V
Kernel developer and Novell coworker Greg Kroah-Hartman manages new drivers in a separate tree for the Linux drivers project. He most recently reported that a few projects will have to depart from Kernel 2.6.33, among them also Google.
In his blog, Kroah-Hartman announced systematically which drivers will be adopted in the staging tree and which will have to be dropped. A driver would likely be removed because it:
- Proved itself worthy and will be promoted to the main kernel tree.
- Has not proved itself worthy or isn't actively maintained, so will be dropped altogether.
Greg had already warned in earlier blogs that the staging tree was not a "dumping ground for dead code" and that he would remove drivers that don't have caretakers to merge them into the main kernel code.
Kernel 2.6.33 is now to be a first case study to Greg's warning. Google's introduced Android code was deemed to be without a maintainer, thus a candidate for removal. The same fate would also apply to the dst distributed storage driver that Greg says no developer is currently maintaining and is hardly being used.
Also on Greg's good-bye list are a few drivers for very old wireless hardware (arlan, netwave, strip and wavelan) and Microsoft's hv Hyper-V driver. Despite Microsoft's free release under GPLv2 of the hv code in July, Greg claims no more work had been done on it. In both cases, the drivers are destined for removal by Kernel 2.6.35. Other drivers are slated for removal even earlier, in 2.6.34. In all of this, Kroah-Hartman is appealing for maintainers to prevent more of this from happening.
Apart from the bad news, the Linux driver project staging tree has had some encouraging development. A few new drivers will make it into 2.6.33 without any further disclaimer. Among them:
- ramzswap -- Compressed RAM driver
- rtl819u -- Wireless driver for Ralink
- samsung-laptop -- Special driver for the Samsung N128 laptop
- batman-adv -- Network protocol driver
- dt3155 -- Frame-grabber hardware driver
- sm7xx -- Another frame-grabber driver
Issue 261/2022
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
KaOS 2022.06 Now Available With KDE Plasma 5.25
The newest iteration of KaOS Linux not only adds the latest KDE Plasma desktop but sets LibreOffice as the default.
-
Manjaro 21.3.0 Is Now Available
Manjaro “Ruah” has been released and includes the latest Calamares installer, GNOME 42, and much more.
-
SpiralLinux is a New Linux Distribution Focused on Simplicity
A new Linux distribution, from the creator of GeckoLinux, is a Debian-based operating system with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.
-
HP Dev One Linux Laptop is Now Available for Pre-Order
The System76/HP collaboration Dev One laptop, geared toward developers, is now available for pre-order.
-
NixOS 22.5 Is Now Available
The latest release of NixOS with a much-improved package manager and a user-friendly graphical installer.
-
System76 Teams up with HP to Create the Dev One Laptop
HP and System76 have come together to develop a new laptop, powered by Pop!_OS and aimed toward developers.
-
Titan Linux is a New KDE Linux Based on Debian Stable
Titan Linux is a new Debian-based Linux distribution that features the KDE Plasma desktop with a focus on usability and performance.
-
Danielle Foré Has an Update for elementary OS 7
Now that Ubuntu 22.04 has been released, the team behind elementary OS is preparing for the upcoming 7.0 release.
-
Linux New Media Launches Open Source JobHub
New job website focuses on connecting technical and non-technical professionals with organizations in open source.
-
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 Now Available
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 has been released with all the additions from upstream as well as other features and improvements.