Re: [PATCH 10/10] [RFC] wifi: remove ipw2100/ipw2200 drivers

From: Kalle Valo <kvalo@kernel.org>
To: Stefan Lippers-Hollmann <s.l-h@gmx.de>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@kernel.org>,  Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>,
	 "David S . Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>,
	 Alexandre Belloni <alexandre.belloni@bootlin.com>,
	 Claudiu Beznea <claudiu.beznea@tuxon.dev>,
	 Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>,
	Geoff Levand <geoff@infradead.org>,
	 Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
	 Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>,
	 Jeff Johnson <quic_jjohnson@quicinc.com>,
	 Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>,
	 Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>,
	Nicolas Ferre <nicolas.ferre@microchip.com>,
	 Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>,  Stanislaw Gruszka <stf_xl@wp.pl>,
	 Gregory Greenman <gregory.greenman@intel.com>,
	 linuxppc-dev <linuxppc-dev@lists.ozlabs.org>,
	 linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,  linux-staging@lists.linux.dev,
	linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org,
	 Stanislav Yakovlev <stas.yakovlev@gmail.com>,
	 Linux Wireless <ilw@linux.intel.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 10/10] [RFC] wifi: remove ipw2100/ipw2200 drivers
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 12:30:29 +0300	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <875y2wz7t6.fsf@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20231024014302.0a0b79b0@mir> (Stefan Lippers-Hollmann's message of "Tue, 24 Oct 2023 01:43:02 +0200")

Stefan Lippers-Hollmann <s.l-h@gmx.de> writes:

> On 2023-10-23, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
>> From: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
>>
>> These two drivers were used for the earliest "Centrino" branded Intel
>> laptops during the late 32-bit Pentium-M era, roughly 2003 to 2005, which
>> probably makes it the most modern platform that still uses the wireless
>> extension interface instead of cfg80211. Unlike the other drivers that
>> are suggested for removal, this one is still officially maintained.
>>
>> According to Johannes Berg, there was an effort to finish the move away
>> from wext in the past, but the last evidence of this that I could find
>> is from commit a3caa99e6c68f ("libipw: initiate cfg80211 API conversion
>> (v2)") in 2009.
>>
>> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/87fs2fgals.fsf@kernel.org/
>> Cc: Stanislav Yakovlev <stas.yakovlev@gmail.com>
>> Cc: Linux Wireless <ilw@linux.intel.com>
>> Signed-off-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
>> ---
>> I'm not convinced this should be in the same set of drivers as the
>> rest, since this is clearly less obsolete than the other hardware
>> that I would remove support for.
>
> These have indeed been very common back in the day, I'm still using
> a 2003-vintage 1.5 GHz Pentium-M 'Banias' Acer Travelmate 292LMi
> notebook using ipw2200 (and have two spare ipw2200 mini-PCI cards).
> Works still fine using v6.5.8-rc1 and WPA2PSK/ CCMP (sadly it does
> not do WPA3) and I do use it semi-regularly (running the latest
> stable- or stable-rc kernel of the day).
>
> While it would be nice to replace it with an ath5k based card (to
> get WPA3 support), the card isn't that easy to reach in the notebook,
> so it would be sad to see this go.

Wow, I'm very surprised that ipw2200 still works after 20 years. Thanks
for the report, I think it's best that we still keep the ipw2x00 driver
in the kernel.

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