# \[PATCH net-next\] drivers/net: delete old 8bit ISA 3c501 driver. - From: Paul Gortmaker \ - Date: 2012-05-18 17:40:00 - List: netdev - Page: https://ratatoskr.run/netdev/2012/05/10895643 - Thread: https://ratatoskr.run/netdev/2012/05/10895643/t.md ```text It was amusing that linux was able to make use of this 1980's technology on machines long past its intended lifespan, but it probably should go now -- it is causing issues in some distros[1], and while that might be fixable, it is just not worth it. To set the context, the 3c501 was designed in the 1980's to be used on 8088 PC-XT 8bit ISA machines. It was built using discrete TTL components and truly looks like a relic of the past. But from a functional point of view, the real issue, as stated in the (also obsolete) Ethernet-HowTo, is that "...the 3c501 can only do one thing at a time -- while you are removing one packet from the single-packet buffer it cannot receive another packet, nor can it receive a packet while loading a transmit packet." You know things are not good when the Kconfig help text suggests you make a cron job doing a ping every minute. Hardware that old and crippled is simply not going to be used by anyone in a time where 10 year old 100Mbit PCI cards (that are still functional) are largely give-away items. [1] http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-networking-3/3com-3c501-card-not-detecting-934344/ Cc: Alan Cox Signed-off-by: Paul Gortmaker --- Below is "format-patch -D" to omit full line-by-line deletions, for review only; full patch based on net-next of today is at: The following changes since commit 92113bfde2f0982daa5a372d67b62f3d55bbc88a: ipv6: bool conversions phase1 (2012-05-18 02:24:13 -0400) are available in the git repository at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulg/linux.git delete-3c501 for you to fetch changes up to 4a3da8d00afdf701a8ff6880180d234d8da8ab6f: drivers/net: delete old 8bit ISA 3c501 driver. (2012-05-18 13:10:01 -0400) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Gortmaker (1): drivers/net: delete old 8bit ISA 3c501 driver. Documentation/networking/multicast.txt | 1 - drivers/net/Space.c | 3 - drivers/net/ethernet/3com/3c501.c | 896 -------------------------------- drivers/net/ethernet/3com/3c501.h | 91 ---- drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Kconfig | 14 - drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Makefile | 1 - 6 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 1006 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 drivers/net/ethernet/3com/3c501.c delete mode 100644 drivers/net/ethernet/3com/3c501.h diff --git a/Documentation/networking/multicast.txt b/Documentation/networking/multicast.txt index b06c8c6..df1a5cf 100644 --- a/Documentation/networking/multicast.txt +++ b/Documentation/networking/multicast.txt @@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ IP-MRoute AllMulti hardware filters are of no help Board Multicast AllMulti Promisc Filter ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -3c501 YES YES YES Software 3c503 YES YES YES Hardware 3c505 YES NO YES Hardware 3c507 NO NO NO N/A diff --git a/drivers/net/Space.c b/drivers/net/Space.c index e3f0fac..d108fac 100644 --- a/drivers/net/Space.c +++ b/drivers/net/Space.c @@ -198,9 +198,6 @@ static struct devprobe2 isa_probes[] __initdata = { #if defined(CONFIG_APRICOT) || defined(CONFIG_MVME16x_NET) || defined(CONFIG_BVME6000_NET) /* Intel I82596 */ {i82596_probe, 0}, #endif -#ifdef CONFIG_EL1 /* 3c501 */ - {el1_probe, 0}, -#endif #ifdef CONFIG_EL16 /* 3c507 */ {el16_probe, 0}, #endif diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/3c501.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/3c501.c deleted file mode 100644 index bf73e1a..0000000 diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/3c501.h b/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/3c501.h deleted file mode 100644 index 183fd55..0000000 diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Kconfig b/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Kconfig index bad4fa6..854b8fe 100644 --- a/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Kconfig +++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Kconfig @@ -18,20 +18,6 @@ config NET_VENDOR_3COM if NET_VENDOR_3COM -config EL1 - tristate "3c501 \"EtherLink\" support" - depends on ISA - ---help--- - If you have a network (Ethernet) card of this type, say Y and read - the Ethernet-HOWTO, available from - . Also, consider buying a - new card, since the 3c501 is slow, broken, and obsolete: you will - have problems. Some people suggest to ping ("man ping") a nearby - machine every minute ("man cron") when using this card. - - To compile this driver as a module, choose M here. The module - will be called 3c501. - config EL3 tristate "3c509/3c529 (MCA)/3c579 \"EtherLink III\" support" depends on (ISA || EISA || MCA) diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Makefile b/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Makefile index 1e5382a..74046af 100644 --- a/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Makefile +++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/3com/Makefile @@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ # Makefile for the 3Com Ethernet device drivers # -obj-$(CONFIG_EL1) += 3c501.o obj-$(CONFIG_EL3) += 3c509.o obj-$(CONFIG_3C515) += 3c515.o obj-$(CONFIG_PCMCIA_3C589) += 3c589_cs.o -- 1.7.9.1 ```