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Linux 6.4 Slated To Start Removing Old, Unused & Unmaintained PCMCIA Drivers

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  • #11
    These people making comments a laptop with PCMCIA cannot run recent kernels are clueless and are clearly only "click and play" users, versus using a terminal. Most users with a pentium 3 and ~500MB RAM can easily still use Gentoo, a source based distribution and compiling each package, while using the virtual terminals. Minimalist desktops also work well with the limited hardware, albeit most tasks are best when using a virtual terminal and curses/ncurses front-ends.

    Kernel developers should really do something with preserving these old working kernel drivers, for those digging-up their old hardware for completing one or two tasks every now and then.


    Well, anyways, thank God I still have my WIndows XP install CDROM. My gut feeling, everybody with older hardware will be reverting to, amazingly, WIndows! Well, these developers gutting code sure are adding value to Microsoft.

    What is interesting, the PCMCIA slots on these older laptops are what truly made the older laptops somewhat future proof and very useful! Without PCMCIA slots, pentium 3 laptops will revert to only USB-1 main board ports, rather than having USB-2/Firewire via PCMCIA slots. Including having wireless hardware. Shrugs... have a working Dell laptop here, like many others, although the old working Dell is in storage now.
    Last edited by rogerx; 11 March 2023, 02:18 AM.

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    • #12
      @rogerx: everything since the "second generation Pentium laptops" (there was a first generation, which has no PCI bus, but only ISA+VLB, like the Siemens pcd-5nd) has cardbus. Cardbus (the 32 bit pci cards) will be _not_ affected, only real 16 bit pcmcia slots and 16 bit pcmcia cards. Almost every card is cardbus, also the depicted WLAN card. The only main exception are many CF->PCMCIA adapters, but these are painfully slow (1MB/s...)

      Btw, at least on the pcd-5nd, you will have no luck with Win XP, because they max out at 40 MB RAM...
      Last edited by mifritscher; 11 March 2023, 02:56 AM.

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      • #13
        Originally posted by rogerx View Post
        Well, anyways, thank God I still have my WIndows XP install CDROM. My gut feeling, everybody with older hardware will be reverting to, amazingly, WIndows! Well, these developers gutting code sure are adding value to Microsoft.
        Why would you run an ancient Windows version rather than just downgrade to the 6.3 kernel (or hell just stick with LTS!) and keep using whatever distro you're using?

        Also what's stopping anyone from just maintaining them as out of tree drivers with dkms?
        Last edited by fong38; 11 March 2023, 04:04 AM.

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        • #14
          Ah yes.... the usual commenters " my ANCIENT ANTIQUE LAPTOP WON"T BE ABLE TO RUN THE 2H2023 brand new kernel, WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!" Just run the still not released as stable 6.3.... I am pretty sure your ancient antique laptop won't need any brand new features from 6.4+.....

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          • #15
            Originally posted by fong38 View Post

            Why would you run an ancient Windows version rather than just downgrade to the 6.3 kernel (or hell just stick with LTS!) and keep using whatever distro you're using?

            Also what's stopping anyone from just maintaining them as out of tree drivers with dkms?
            Those questions are meant to be answered by rational people, not trolls.

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            • #16
              Originally posted by stan View Post
              Just leave the drivers in there. They aren’t hurting anybody. It’s as if Linux has saboteurs working on behalf of M$FT and Apple and who are purposely making Linux suck by pushing planned obsolescence.
              I'm so tired of reading these comments from people who obviously either don't understand how code works or haven't ever touched a code base much bigger than hello world. These drivers don't exist in a vacuum, they utilize kernel APIs and frameworks and therefore have to change along with them. Someone modifying kernel architecture 30 years later shouldn't have to understand the ins and outs of hardware no one uses anymore. The alternative is worse, subtly breaking it with no maintainer and no way to know until someone actually tries using it

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              • #17
                Originally posted by rogerx View Post
                Kernel developers should really do something with preserving these old working kernel drivers, for those digging-up their old hardware for completing one or two tasks every now and then.
                No, kernel developers work on whatever they fancy, or what somebody pays them to work on. Not on what you or I think they "should" work on.

                Well, anyways, thank God I still have my WIndows XP install CDROM. My gut feeling, everybody with older hardware will be reverting to, amazingly, WIndows! Well, these developers gutting code sure are adding value to Microsoft.
                I'm sure the open source community will be utterly devastated by you departing for Windows XP.

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                • #18
                  Originally posted by rogerx View Post
                  Well, anyways, thank God I still have my WIndows XP install CDROM. My gut feeling, everybody with older hardware will be reverting to, amazingly, WIndows! Well, these developers gutting code sure are adding value to Microsoft.
                  How does that help, unless you keep getting some secret windows XP updates from somewhere still?

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                  • #19
                    Originally posted by rogerx View Post
                    Most users with a pentium 3 and ~500MB RAM can easily still use Gentoo, a source based distribution and compiling each package, while using the virtual terminals. Minimalist desktops also work well with the limited hardware, albeit most tasks are best when using a virtual terminal and curses/ncurses front-ends.
                    I remember the times when using my full-blown 25 MB system (with Tseng-ET6000 and 14400 baud serial modem) [actually I probably still possess this hardware, except for the modem which I regret the most]. I wouldn't dare to run current gcc on this. But if you're so brave to compile Gentoo, you should have the courage to fetch the drivers from older branch of the kernel. After all, they won't receive any updates anyway, so it shouldn't matter, should it?

                    Kernel developers should really do something with preserving these old working kernel drivers, for those digging-up their old hardware for completing one or two tasks every now and then.
                    What makes you not suitable for doing this? Just step in and become the maintainer of all the abandonware of the world.

                    Anyway - these are preserved; ever heard about git?

                    Well, anyways, thank God I still have my WIndows XP install CDROM. My gut feeling, everybody with older hardware will be reverting to, amazingly, WIndows! Well, these developers gutting code sure are adding value to Microsoft.
                    ROTFL
                    Now you've just shown you simply have no practice in the matter... I've run a desktop machine with Windows XP like 5 years ago. It crashed on spot. No updates, no current TLS, no working web.

                    Without any web, I could have just unplugged it, revive and use for offline apps.

                    But wait a minute - you don't mind using ancient Windows, but see a problem with 2022 kernel?
                    What kind of updates do you expect from bleeding edge software on ancient hardware?
                    Last edited by gotar; 11 March 2023, 06:35 AM.

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                    • #20
                      Originally posted by pmorph View Post
                      How does that help, unless you keep getting some secret windows XP updates from somewhere still?
                      Simple troll logic "using unsupported software from 2001 is better than using LTS supported software from 2023"..... Because reasons....

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