![Roland Dreier](/assets/img/avatar_default.png)
The mthca driver supports both MSI and MSI-X. However, MSI-X works with all hardware that the driver handles, and provides a superset of what MSI does, so there's no point in having code for both. Schedule MSI support for removal in 2008 to give anyone who actually needs MSI and who can't use MSI time to speak up. Signed-off-by: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
323 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
323 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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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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: /sys/devices/.../power/state
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dev->power.power_state
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dpm_runtime_{suspend,resume)()
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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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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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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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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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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: 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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Funcs: 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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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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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: 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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---------------------------
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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-isa
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When: December 2006
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Why: i2c-isa is a non-sense and doesn't fit in the device driver
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model. Drivers relying on it are better implemented as platform
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drivers.
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Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
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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: /sys/firmware/acpi/namespace
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When: 2.6.21
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Why: The ACPI namespace is effectively the symbol list for
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the BIOS. The device names are completely arbitrary
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and have no place being exposed to user-space.
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For those interested in the BIOS ACPI namespace,
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the BIOS can be extracted and disassembled with acpidump
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and iasl as documented in the pmtools package here:
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http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/lenb/acpi/utils
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Who: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
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---------------------------
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What: ACPI procfs interface
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When: July 2007
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Why: After ACPI sysfs conversion, ACPI attributes will be duplicated
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in sysfs and the ACPI procfs interface should be removed.
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Who: Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
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---------------------------
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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: Compaq touchscreen device emulation
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When: Oct 2007
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Files: drivers/input/tsdev.c
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Why: The code says it was obsolete when it was written in 2001.
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tslib is a userspace library which does anything tsdev can do and
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much more besides in userspace where this code belongs. There is no
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longer any need for tsdev and applications should have converted to
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use tslib by now.
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The name "tsdev" is also extremely confusing and lots of people have
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it loaded when they don't need/use it.
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Who: Richard Purdie <rpurdie@rpsys.net>
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---------------------------
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What: read_dev_chars(), read_conf_data{,_lpm}() (s390 common I/O layer)
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When: December 2007
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Why: These functions are a leftover from 2.4 times. They have several
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problems:
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- Duplication of checks that are done in the device driver's
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interrupt handler
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- common I/O layer can't do device specific error recovery
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- device driver can't be notified for conditions happening during
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execution of the function
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Device drivers should issue the read device characteristics and read
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configuration data ccws and do the appropriate error handling
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themselves.
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Who: Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@de.ibm.com>
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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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---------------------------
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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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