FCP-0101: Deprecating most 10/100 Ethernet drivers

[Eugene Grosbein]

04.10.2018 4:05, Brooks Davis wrote:

>>>> 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

"fxpl" should have been "fxp" here, I suppose.

While I have no objection for general direction, I have doubts about removal of ste(4) and especially rl(4).
These are cheap 100Mbit VERY popular NICs sold in enourmous values in certain markets
by vendors like D-Link and TP-Link using various trade names.

Lack of support for such popular 100M cards won't be good for FreeBSD, I suppose.