RFC: removing ndis(4)

[Vladimir Kondratyev]

On 03.12.2020 03:12, Brooks Davis wrote:
> I'd like to propose that we remove the ndis(4) driver prior to FreeBSD
> 13.  It was a clever idea in the early 2000's when the market was
> flooded with 10/100 NICs with Windows-only drivers, but that hasn't been
> the case for ages and the driver has had no meaningful maintenance in
> ages[0].  I'd be a bit surprised if it worked at all today (it surely
> won't work with modern Windows drivers).
>
> To try to examine the popularity of ndis, I checked dmesgd.nycbug.org
> and there are 5 total entries with the most recent being 2007.
>
> The PC Card attachments are currently marked for deletion prior to
> FreeBSD 13.
>
> Unless there is surprising outcry I plan to add (and MFC) deprecation
> notices in about a week's time and remove the driver shortly thereafter.
>
> -- Brooks
>
> [0] I noticed today that part of the ndis 802.11 ioctl handler has been
> broken since 2005.

ndis(4) was functional at least in 2015 and at that time it was the only
way to utilize BCM's wi-fi built in my "Asus EEEPC"