FCP-0101: Deprecating most 10/100 Ethernet drivers

[Nikita Druba]

04.10.2018 0:05, Brooks Davis пишет:
>>>> Please direct replies to freebsd-arch <<<
> FCP-01010 (https://github.com/freebsd/fcp/blob/master/fcp-0101.md)
> outlines a plan to deprecate most 10/100 Ethernet drivers in FreeBSD 12
> and remove them in FreeBSD 13 to reduce the burden of maintaining and
> improving the network stack.  We have discussed this within the
> core team and intend to move forward as proposed.  We are solictiting
> feedback on the list of drivers to be excepted from removal.
>
> The current list of drivers slated for REMOVAL is:
>
> ae, bfe, bm, cs, dme, ed, ep, ex, fe, pcn, rl, sf, smc, sn,
> ste, tl, tx, txp, vx, wb, xe
>
> The current list of drivers that will STAY in the tree is:
>
> dc, ffec, fxpl, hme, le, sis, vr, xl
>
> The criteria for exception are:
>   - Popular in applications where it is likely to be deployed beyond the
>     support lifetime of FreeBSD 12 (late 2023).
>     - 5 reports of uses in the wild on machines running FreeBSD 12 will be
>       deemed satisfy the "popular"
>       requirement.
>   - Required to make a well supported embedded or emulation platform usable.
>   - Ported to use iflib (reducing future maintenance cost.)
>
> Please reply to this message with nominations to the exception list.
>
> The full FCP-0101 is included below.
>
> -- Brooks
>
> ---
> authors: Brooks Davis <brooks at freebsd.org>
> state: feedback
> ---
>
> # FCP 101: Deprecation and removal of 10/100 Ethernet drivers
>
> Deprecate most 10 and 10/100Mbps Ethernet drivers and remove them before
> FreeBSD 13.
>
> ## Problem Statement
>
> Each network driver creates drag for the project as we attempt to
> improve the network stack or provide new features such as expanded
> 32-bit compatibility.  For example, the author has edited every single
> NIC driver more than once in the past year to update management (`ioctl`)
> interfaces.  We could improve this situation by converting drivers to
> iflib, but each additional driver takes work.
>
> 10 and 100 megabit Ethernet drivers are largely irrelevant today
> and we have a significant number of them in the tree.  The ones that
> are no longer used and/or are not known to be working need to be
> removed due to the significant ongoing 'tax' on new development.
>
> For at least a decade, most systems (including small embedded
> systems) have shipped with gigabit Ethernet devices and virtual
> machines commonly emulate popular gigabit devices.  We wish to
> retain support for popular physical and virtual devices while
> removing support for uncommon ones.  With a few exceptions these
> drivers are unlikely to be used by our user base by the time FreeBSD
> 12 is obsolete (approximately 2024).
>
> ## Proposed Solution
>
> We propose to deprecate devices which are not sufficiently popular.  This
> will entail:
>   - (October 2018) Send this list to freebsd-net and freebsd-stable.
>   - (Before FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE - October 2018) Update the manpages and
>     attach routines for each device to be removed and merge those changes
>     to FreeBSD 12.
>   - (One month after FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE - January 2018) Remind
>     freebsd-net and freebsd-stable users of pending deletion.
>   - (Two months after FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE - February 2019) Delete deprecated
>     devices.
>
> Through out this process, solicit feedback on additions to the exception
> list and update this document as required.  For a device to be placed on
> the exception list the device must meet one of the following criteria:
>   - Popular in applications where it is likely to be deployed beyond the
>     support lifetime of FreeBSD 12 (late 2023).
>     - 5 reports of uses in the wild on machines running FreeBSD 12 will be
>       deemed satisfy the "popular"
>       requirement.
>   - Required to make a well supported embedded or emulation platform usable.
>   - Ported to use iflib (reducing future maintenance cost.)
>
> ### Exceptions to removal
>
> Device | Reason
> -------|-------------------------------------------------
> ffec   | Onboard Ethernet for Vybrid arm7 boards
> fxp    | Popular device long recommended by the project.
> dc     | Popular device for CardBus card.
> hme    | Built in interface on many supported sparc64 platforms.
> le     | Emulated by QEMU, alternatives don't yet work for mips64.
> sis    | Soekris Engineering net45xx, net48xx, lan1621, and lan1641.
> vr     | Soekris Engineering net5501, some Asus motherboards.
> xl     | Popular device for CardBus card.
>
> Note: USB devices have been excluded from consideration in this round.
>
> ### Device to be removed
>
> ae, bfe, bm, cs, dme, ed, ep, ex, fe, pcn, rl, sf, smc, sn,
> ste, tl, tx, txp, vx, wb, xe
>
> ## Final Disposition
>
> TBD
Hello!

My servers use rl and bfe devices from deprecated list. Also I have some 
ed devices for replacement failed adapters.

Also I can try do convertion to iflib for bfe, rl and ed devices, but 
still no one not showed good example driver that has already been 
converted...

P.S. So late, because I was away and just returned.