On Wed, 28 Jan 2026, Ethan Nelson-Moore wrote:

quoted

We deleted the vxge which I think(?) was for a newer version of this HW
3+ years ago and nobody complained.

Yes, it was for the newer PCIe version of this hardware. Since no one
complained about that (unlike when fealnx and sundance were removed
and then restored on request), it's even less likely someone is using
the PCI-X version. FWIW, 64-bit PCI and 66MHz PCI are even rarer than
PCI-X, so there's basically no way to use this card with reasonable
performance nowadays.

 Well, I have a system with 64-bit/66MHz 3.3V PCI slots, so I could use 
the network card right away if I had one (I prefer FDDI though, works 
nicely for my intranet).  Something being rare does not mean no one has a 
use for it.

quoted

quoted

What's the gain from removing a driver unless say it's broken and
does not build?

It very well might be broken. When vxge was removed it emerged that
someone had reported it as having last worked in 4.1 and broken
somewhere between there and 4.4 - see:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=197881

 Now, that's surely a good argument in favour to removal, although a 
single report might be too little, as it could be an odd combination of 
the system and the option rather than the driver being outright broken.
In any case I think it should be mentioned in the commit description.

  Maciej