On Wed, Jun 29, 2022 at 2:44 PM Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > With the multiplatform work completed in the past merge window, and the > scheduled deprecation of the Samsung s3c platforms, I decided to have a > look at the remaining board files. There are 196 remaining boards, down > from 489 boards ten years ago, but my estimate is that only few of those > ever booted a linux-5.x kernel, and even less for future kernels. The > question is how to find out which ones are still used, and which ones > can go. > > I would propose that we start by changing the assumption that all boards > might be used, instead assuming that they are all outdated unless someone > says that they actually prefer to keep it in the kernel. I have started > a list of all 196 boards and annotated the ones that look like candidates > for removal [1]. If a board you use is on that list, please either reply > here or add a comment in the document. > > Unless someone has a better idea for how to proceed, I would allow > six months for users to speak up and then remove the orphaned board > files for the release following the LTS kernel. I can't list all boards > individually, so here is a breakdown by platform: > > s3c24xx > > These are all scheduled for removal in early 2023 already, once the next > longterm stable kernel is out. No changes here, but it seems useful > to use the same timeline for removing unused board files of the other > platforms together. > > s3c64xx > > There are ten board files, which are currently scheduled for removal in > 2024, along with the DT based boards for this SoC. We can still decide > to throw out some of the board files earlier though, while keeping the > platform around. > > cns3xxx > > There is only one reference board here, the actual products that were > previously supported, none of the board files from openwrt (now gone) made > it in, and the DT support was never completed, so the entire platform can > go away. We could also consider dropping the other arm11mpcore platforms > (oxnas and the mpcore variants of realview/integrator) at the same time, > since there are known issues with the CPU core. > > iop32x > > Some of the NAS devices were still in use two years ago as they have > a lot of RAM for an ARMv5 based machine, not sure if they still are > used. If they are, a DT conversion similar to what we did for ixp4xx > should be possible. > > pxa > > There are a ton of boards on this one, including seven with qemu support, > but based on IRC discussions, my feeling is that everyone who worked on > this has already lost interest a few years ago. There is rudimentary DT > support, so it may be helpful to pick one or two boards (gumstix?) with > good qemu support and keep them around for conversion to DT, while > removing all other boards. FWIW, u-boot is removing all PXA support. Rob
