Re: Discuss: Future of AX25, NETROM and ROSE in the kernel ?

On Tue, Apr 21, 2026 at 2:28=E2=80=AFAM Hugh Blemings <[email protected]> w=
rote:
> Hi All,
>
> Just to note in this thread (top posting as it's a bit orthogonal to the
> rest of this discussion) that events have preceeded us somewhat here
>
> A patch just recently submitted removes the AX25, NETROM and ROSE code
> from the kernel moving it to the mod-orphan sub tree of netdev
>
> https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/[email protected]/T=
/#u

Wow, that happened much faster than I had anticipated.

> A shame but perhaps inevitable - but I think we have a good plan
> unfolding to both take care of medium term maintenance of the kernel
> code (in tree or out as it may be) as well as a move to userspace in the
> longer term.
>
> For the benefit of the netdev readership - we had a thread over in
> linux-hams on this but that may not have been visible to folks in
> netdev.  TL;DR: we think we have a way forward but appreciate this may
> not be quick enough to meet the requirements/concerns put forward
>
> If we can delay removal, that'd be grand, but appreciate that moment may
> have passed.

Personally, I think this may actually turn out to be a good thing.  If
nothing else, it's a forcing function for the ham community to get
serious about providing an implementation that works well, and in the
short term, an out-of-tree module can keep things working for folks
while alternatives are investigated and prepared.

I appreciate that folks want to discuss timing, but it doesn't appear
that there is much else to be done at this point. It would make sense
to continue discussion of alternatives over on linux-hams, sparing the
already-overloaded readers of the netdev list from the sordid details.

        - Dan C.
          (KZ2X)