[PATCH v2 00/19] ARM: platform and feature deprecation
Arnd Bergmann <[email protected]> Wed, 1 Jul 2026 23:23:34 +0200
| Newsgroups | dev.linux.lists.soc,org.infradead.lists.linux-arm-kernel,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
From: Arnd Bergmann <[email protected]> Sorry for dropping the ball on v1 of this series almost two years ago. This is attempt to bring the source code to the state that we discussed back in 2024, regarding a timeline for deprecating and removing features, in particular platforms and ABIs that are basically unused and are also getting in the way of maintenance. The earlier consensus was to remove these features in 2025 or 2026 after the corresponding LTS kernel release. I would suggest pushing these to early 2027 now, see the patch description for details on each one: - all board files that are still not converted to DT (except for OMAP1 and S3C) - iWMMXt FPU support - ARMv6/ARM1136r0 (not ARMv6K/ARM1136r1/ARM1176) along with the OMAP24xx and i.MX31 SoCs using it - Cortex-M3/M4/M7 based microcontroller support (stm32, imxrt, lpc18xx, samv7) - LSI Axxia platform - OABI, OABI-compat and NWFPE are confined to StrongARM based builds and scheduled for removal once StrongARM is gone. - DEPRECATED_PARAM_STRUCT, which was originally scheduled for removal in 2006 (!) The ARCH_S3C64XX platform was scheduled for removal in 2024, but is still actively used and will get removed once Mark Brown stops using it. The OMAP1 platform has some remaining boardfiles and is expected to get converted to DT. Big-endian ARMv7 CPU support is not scheduled for removal but marked as broken the same way as ARM64 has, to reduce the need for testing unused configurations. This may be removed in the future if arm64 does it as well (note: big-endian ARMv5 support is not deprecated because it is used by ixp4xx). Regarding actually removing the code, I would suggest linux-7.4 (January 2027), removing both the board files and any drivers that have either become newly unused or were missed in a previous machine removal series, followed by removing support for then unused CPUs a release later. Maintainers of the above features, please provide Acks or let me know if you think any of them need to hand around for longer. Changes since v1: - fix build failures for ARMv6 patch - update timelines - add a few more patches for features that were not quite as obsolete two years ago Links to previous discussion: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/ https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/[email protected]/ https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/ Arnd Bergmann (19): ARM: use CONFIG_AEABI by default everywhere ARM: limit OABI support to StrongARM CPUs ARM: rework ARM11 CPU selection logic ARM: deprecate support for ARM1136r0 ARM: turn CONFIG_ATAGS off by default ARM: mark CPU_ENDIAN_BE8 as deprecated ARM: update DEPRECATED_PARAM_STRUCT removal timeline ARM: s3c64xx: extend deprecation schedule ARM: update FPE_NWFPE help text ARM: mark IWMMXT as deprecated ARM: mark ARCH_DOVE as deprecated ARM: PXA: mark remaining board files as deprecated ARM: orion5x: mark all board files as deprecated ARM: mark mach-sa1100 as deprecated ARM: mark RiscPC as deprecated ARM: mark footbridge as deprecated ARM: mark Cortex-M3/M4/M7 based boards as deprecated ARM: mark axxia platform as deprecated ARM: mark mv78xx0 support as deprecated arch/arm/Kconfig | 80 ++++++++++++++----------- arch/arm/Kconfig.platforms | 2 +- arch/arm/configs/am200epdkit_defconfig | 3 +- arch/arm/configs/aspeed_g4_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/aspeed_g5_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/assabet_defconfig | 3 + arch/arm/configs/at91_dt_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/axm55xx_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/bcm2835_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/clps711x_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/collie_defconfig | 2 +- arch/arm/configs/davinci_all_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/dove_defconfig | 2 +- arch/arm/configs/ep93xx_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/footbridge_defconfig | 2 + arch/arm/configs/gemini_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/h3600_defconfig | 3 +- arch/arm/configs/hisi_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/imx_v4_v5_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/integrator_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/ixp4xx_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/jornada720_defconfig | 3 +- arch/arm/configs/keystone_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/lpc32xx_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/mmp2_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/moxart_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/mps2_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/multi_v4t_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/multi_v5_defconfig | 10 ---- arch/arm/configs/mv78xx0_defconfig | 3 +- arch/arm/configs/mvebu_v5_defconfig | 10 ---- arch/arm/configs/mxs_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/neponset_defconfig | 3 + arch/arm/configs/netwinder_defconfig | 3 + arch/arm/configs/nhk8815_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/omap1_defconfig | 3 +- arch/arm/configs/orion5x_defconfig | 11 ---- arch/arm/configs/pxa168_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/pxa3xx_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/pxa910_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/pxa_defconfig | 5 -- arch/arm/configs/rpc_defconfig | 3 + arch/arm/configs/s3c6400_defconfig | 2 + arch/arm/configs/sama5_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/sama7_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/spear13xx_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/spitz_defconfig | 2 +- arch/arm/configs/stm32_defconfig | 3 +- arch/arm/configs/versatile_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/configs/vt8500_v6_v7_defconfig | 1 - arch/arm/configs/wpcm450_defconfig | 2 - arch/arm/mach-at91/Kconfig | 4 +- arch/arm/mach-axxia/Kconfig | 4 +- arch/arm/mach-dove/Kconfig | 8 ++- arch/arm/mach-footbridge/Kconfig | 7 ++- arch/arm/mach-imx/Kconfig | 13 +++- arch/arm/mach-mv78xx0/Kconfig | 4 +- arch/arm/mach-omap2/Kconfig | 18 ++++-- arch/arm/mach-orion5x/Kconfig | 47 +++++++++++---- arch/arm/mach-pxa/Kconfig | 10 +++- arch/arm/mach-rpc/Kconfig | 5 +- arch/arm/mach-s3c/Kconfig.s3c64xx | 15 +++-- arch/arm/mach-sa1100/Kconfig | 5 +- arch/arm/mach-stm32/Kconfig | 14 +++-- arch/arm/mach-versatile/Kconfig | 15 +++-- arch/arm/mm/Kconfig | 29 ++++++++- 66 files changed, 227 insertions(+), 170 deletions(-) -- 2.39.5 Cc: Aaro Koskinen <[email protected]> Cc: Alexander Sverdlin <[email protected]> Cc: Alexandre Belloni <[email protected]> Cc: Alexandre Torgue <[email protected]> Cc: Andrew Lunn <[email protected]> Cc: Ard Biesheuvel <[email protected]> Cc: Claudiu Beznea <[email protected]> Cc: Daniel Mack <[email protected]> Cc: Ethan Nelson-Moore <[email protected]> Cc: Frank Li <[email protected]> Cc: Gregory Clement <[email protected]> Cc: Haojian Zhuang <[email protected]> Cc: "Jeremy J. Peper" <[email protected]> Cc: Kristoffer Ericson <[email protected]> Cc: Krzysztof Kozlowski <[email protected]> Cc: Linus Walleij <[email protected]> Cc: Mark Brown <[email protected]> Cc: Marc Zyngier <[email protected]> Cc: Mike Rapoport <[email protected]> Cc: Nicolas Ferre <[email protected]> Cc: Patrice Chotard <[email protected]> Cc: Ralph Siemsen <[email protected]> Cc: Robert Jarzmik <[email protected]> Cc: Russell King <[email protected]> Cc: Sascha Hauer <[email protected]> Cc: Sebastian Hesselbarth <[email protected]> Cc: Stefan Agner <[email protected]> Cc: Stefan Wiehler <[email protected]> Cc: Tony Lindgren <[email protected]> Cc: Vladimir Zapolskiy <[email protected]> Cc: Will Deacon <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected]