---------------------------
-What: MXSER
-When: December 2007
-Why: Old mxser driver is obsoleted by the mxser_new. Give it some time yet
- and remove it.
-Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com>
-
----------------------------
-
-What: V4L2 VIDIOC_G_MPEGCOMP and VIDIOC_S_MPEGCOMP
-When: October 2007
-Why: Broken attempt to set MPEG compression parameters. These ioctls are
- not able to implement the wide variety of parameters that can be set
- by hardware MPEG encoders. A new MPEG control mechanism was created
- in kernel 2.6.18 that replaces these ioctls. See the V4L2 specification
- (section 1.9: Extended controls) for more information on this topic.
-Who: Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@xs4all.nl> and
- Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
-
----------------------------
-
What: dev->power.power_state
When: July 2007
Why: Broken design for runtime control over driver power states, confusing
---------------------------
What: Video4Linux API 1 ioctls and video_decoder.h from Video devices.
-When: December 2006
-Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h
-Check: include/linux/video_decoder.h
-Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API. during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
+When: December 2008
+Files: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h
+Check: include/linux/video_decoder.h include/linux/videodev.h
+Why: V4L1 AP1 was replaced by V4L2 API during migration from 2.4 to 2.6
series. The old API have lots of drawbacks and don't provide enough
means to work with all video and audio standards. The newer API is
already available on the main drivers and should be used instead.
Decoder iocts are using internally to allow video drivers to
communicate with video decoders. This should also be improved to allow
V4L2 calls being translated into compatible internal ioctls.
-Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@brturbo.com.br>
+ Compatibility ioctls will be provided, for a while, via
+ v4l1-compat module.
+Who: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
---------------------------
---------------------------
+What: sys_sysctl
+When: September 2010
+Option: CONFIG_SYSCTL_SYSCALL
+Why: The same information is available in a more convenient from
+ /proc/sys, and none of the sysctl variables appear to be
+ important performance wise.
+
+ Binary sysctls are a long standing source of subtle kernel
+ bugs and security issues.
+
+ When I looked several months ago all I could find after
+ searching several distributions were 5 user space programs and
+ glibc (which falls back to /proc/sys) using this syscall.
+
+ The man page for sysctl(2) documents it as unusable for user
+ space programs.
+
+ sysctl(2) is not generally ABI compatible to a 32bit user
+ space application on a 64bit and a 32bit kernel.
+
+ For the last several months the policy has been no new binary
+ sysctls and no one has put forward an argument to use them.
+
+ Binary sysctls issues seem to keep happening appearing so
+ properly deprecating them (with a warning to user space) and a
+ 2 year grace warning period will mean eventually we can kill
+ them and end the pain.
+
+ In the mean time individual binary sysctls can be dealt with
+ in a piecewise fashion.
+
+Who: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: a.out interpreter support for ELF executables
+When: 2.6.25
+Files: fs/binfmt_elf.c
+Why: Using a.out interpreters for ELF executables was a feature for
+ transition from a.out to ELF. But now it is unlikely to be still
+ needed anymore and removing it would simplify the hairy ELF
+ loader code.
+Who: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
+
+---------------------------
+
What: remove EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_thread)
When: August 2006
Files: arch/*/kernel/*_ksyms.c
---------------------------
-What: USB driver API moves to EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL
-When: February 2008
-Files: include/linux/usb.h, drivers/usb/core/driver.c
-Why: The USB subsystem has changed a lot over time, and it has been
- possible to create userspace USB drivers using usbfs/libusb/gadgetfs
- that operate as fast as the USB bus allows. Because of this, the USB
- subsystem will not be allowing closed source kernel drivers to
- register with it, after this grace period is over. If anyone needs
- any help in converting their closed source drivers over to use the
- userspace filesystems, please contact the
- linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list, and the developers
- there will be glad to help you out.
-Who: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
-
----------------------------
-
What: vm_ops.nopage
When: Soon, provided in-kernel callers have been converted
Why: This interface is replaced by vm_ops.fault, but it has been around
---------------------------
-What: Interrupt only SA_* flags
-When: September 2007
-Why: The interrupt related SA_* flags are replaced by IRQF_* to move them
- out of the signal namespace.
-
-Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
-
----------------------------
-
What: PHYSDEVPATH, PHYSDEVBUS, PHYSDEVDRIVER in the uevent environment
When: October 2008
Why: The stacking of class devices makes these values misleading and
---------------------------
-What: i2c_adapter.list
-When: July 2007
-Why: Superfluous, this list duplicates the one maintained by the driver
- core.
-Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>,
- David Brownell <dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net>
-
----------------------------
-
-What: drivers depending on OBSOLETE_OSS
-When: options in 2.6.22, code in 2.6.24
-Why: OSS drivers with ALSA replacements
-Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
-
----------------------------
-
What: ACPI procfs interface
When: July 2008
Why: ACPI sysfs conversion should be finished by January 2008.
---------------------------
-What: Compaq touchscreen device emulation
-When: Oct 2007
-Files: drivers/input/tsdev.c
-Why: The code says it was obsolete when it was written in 2001.
- tslib is a userspace library which does anything tsdev can do and
- much more besides in userspace where this code belongs. There is no
- longer any need for tsdev and applications should have converted to
- use tslib by now.
- The name "tsdev" is also extremely confusing and lots of people have
- it loaded when they don't need/use it.
-Who: Richard Purdie <rpurdie@rpsys.net>
-
----------------------------
-
-What: i2c-ixp2000, i2c-ixp4xx and scx200_i2c drivers
-When: September 2007
-Why: Obsolete. The new i2c-gpio driver replaces all hardware-specific
- I2C-over-GPIO drivers.
-Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
-
----------------------------
-
What: 'time' kernel boot parameter
When: January 2008
Why: replaced by 'printk.time=<value>' so that printk timestamps can be
---------------------------
-What: drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE
-When: options in 2.6.23, code in 2.6.25
-Why: obsolete OSS drivers
-Who: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
-
----------------------------
-
What: libata spindown skipping and warning
When: Dec 2008
Why: Some halt(8) implementations synchronize caches for and spin
---------------------------
-What: Legacy RTC drivers (under drivers/i2c/chips)
-When: November 2007
-Why: Obsolete. We have a RTC subsystem with better drivers.
-Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
-
----------------------------
-
-What: iptables SAME target
-When: 1.1. 2008
-Files: net/ipv4/netfilter/ipt_SAME.c, include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_SAME.h
-Why: Obsolete for multiple years now, NAT core provides the same behaviour.
- Unfixable broken wrt. 32/64 bit cleanness.
-Who: Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>
-
----------------------------
-
What: The arch/ppc and include/asm-ppc directories
When: Jun 2008
Why: The arch/powerpc tree is the merged architecture for ppc32 and ppc64
---------------------------
-What: mthca driver's MSI support
-When: January 2008
-Files: drivers/infiniband/hw/mthca/*.[ch]
-Why: All mthca hardware also supports MSI-X, which provides
- strictly more functionality than MSI. So there is no point in
- having both MSI-X and MSI support in the driver.
-Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
-
----------------------------
-
What: sk98lin network driver
When: Feburary 2008
Why: In kernel tree version of driver is unmaintained. Sk98lin driver
---------------------------
-What: shaper network driver
-When: January 2008
-Files: drivers/net/shaper.c, include/linux/if_shaper.h
-Why: This driver has been marked obsolete for many years.
- It was only designed to work on lower speed links and has design
- flaws that lead to machine crashes. The qdisc infrastructure in
- 2.4 or later kernels, provides richer features and is more robust.
-Who: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
+What: i386/x86_64 bzImage symlinks
+When: April 2008
+
+Why: The i386/x86_64 merge provides a symlink to the old bzImage
+ location so not yet updated user space tools, e.g. package
+ scripts, do not break.
+Who: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
+
+---------------------------
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: i2c-i810, i2c-prosavage and i2c-savage4
+When: May 2008
+Why: These drivers are superseded by i810fb, intelfb and savagefb.
+Who: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: bcm43xx wireless network driver
+When: 2.6.26
+Files: drivers/net/wireless/bcm43xx
+Why: This driver's functionality has been replaced by the
+ mac80211-based b43 and b43legacy drivers.
+Who: John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: ieee80211 softmac wireless networking component
+When: 2.6.26 (or after removal of bcm43xx and port of zd1211rw to mac80211)
+Files: net/ieee80211/softmac
+Why: No in-kernel drivers will depend on it any longer.
+Who: John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: rc80211-simple rate control algorithm for mac80211
+When: 2.6.26
+Files: net/mac80211/rc80211-simple.c
+Why: This algorithm was provided for reference but always exhibited bad
+ responsiveness and performance and has some serious flaws. It has been
+ replaced by rc80211-pid.
+Who: Stefano Brivio <stefano.brivio@polimi.it>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What (Why):
+ - include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_TOS.h ipt_tos.h header files
+ (superseded by xt_TOS/xt_tos target & match)
+
+ - "forwarding" header files like ipt_mac.h in
+ include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ and include/linux/netfilter_ipv6/
+
+ - xt_CONNMARK match revision 0
+ (superseded by xt_CONNMARK match revision 1)
+
+ - xt_MARK target revisions 0 and 1
+ (superseded by xt_MARK match revision 2)
+
+ - xt_connmark match revision 0
+ (superseded by xt_connmark match revision 1)
+
+ - xt_conntrack match revision 0
+ (superseded by xt_conntrack match revision 1)
+
+ - xt_iprange match revision 0,
+ include/linux/netfilter_ipv4/ipt_iprange.h
+ (superseded by xt_iprange match revision 1)
+
+ - xt_mark match revision 0
+ (superseded by xt_mark match revision 1)
+
+When: January 2009 or Linux 2.7.0, whichever comes first
+Why: Superseded by newer revisions or modules
+Who: Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@computergmbh.de>
+
+---------------------------
+
+What: b43 support for firmware revision < 410
+When: July 2008
+Why: The support code for the old firmware hurts code readability/maintainability
+ and slightly hurts runtime performance. Bugfixes for the old firmware
+ are not provided by Broadcom anymore.
+Who: Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de>
git://ftp.safe.ca / safe / jmp / linux-2.6 / blobdiff