The Linux Kernel Preparing To Drop Infrastructure For Old & Obsolete Graphics Drivers - Phoronix

Mike@lemmy.ml to Linux@lemmy.ml – 259 points –
The Linux Kernel Preparing To Drop Infrastructure For Old & Obsolete Graphics Drivers
phoronix.com
71

You are viewing a single comment

so any remaining users have a few more years to get a new graphics card.

Anyone running a Voodoo is doing so because they want to. Dropping support is bullshit.

Then pay someone to do the work.

Supporting obscure trash isn't worth development time.

So just don’t upgrade the kernel

Then 0-day can become known vulnerability. Yay?

What are you doing that is so crucial to keep a 20+ year old piece of consumer hardware connected to the internet? Honest question

To answer the question as given:

https://lyonsden.net/getting-an-amiga-a1200-online-part-1-adding-a-network-card/

https://hackaday.com/2016/12/17/apple-ii-web-server-written-in-basic/

Because. The answer is because.

And if you have a machine that is more capable than those by default then the OS software artificially disabling its use is pretty fucked up.

So, there's nothing actually crucial, it's for tinkering. I doubt either the Apple II or the Amiga you linked are going to be secure.

Yeah you're not actually interested in listening to what's being said. Bye.

If you're doing it for the memes then you don't really need to worry about malware. Your machine is probably too old for anything that's still floating out there to even work on it.

Many people browse 4-5 pages a day, see a few emails, print a few pdfs, and a core2duo, or x4, for 40#/$/Eu a box run flawlessly with linux and xfce/lxde for example.
Even video-conferencing works fine.

Why not?

@ICastFist @db2

This is not about "old computers" in general, this is about a specific set of consumer graphics cards that are not needed for any of those things you mentioned.

Also worth noting: a core2duo is from around 2006. These dropped cards are from the late 90s.

Driver code is still there, you can add it back if you want, same with ide drivers and such, support was removed but code still exists, just add it and compile your own kernel, there are alot of tutorials in internet about it

Go add a 2.4 era driver to a modern kernel and see how that goes.

Then support will be until 2033 when 6.1 slts support will end

The drivers were removed in 6.3. Debian 12 is still running on 6.1. Debian 12 just came out and still has many years of support ahead of it (at least 5). You can get plenty of use out of these cards before they stop working.

But they'll stop working due to artificial causes.

Someone needs to maintain them for them to keep working. Nobody else is willing to do that anymore, but you can still volunteer as a maintainer. If you don't, it's as much your fault as anyone elses.

There's a big difference between dropping a driver and dropping the ability to have the driver. I've compiled plenty of drivers.

I would suppose anyone running a computer with these relics can recompile a kernel to get these drivers back

Voodoo cards are worth money to the right people. They're used in a bunch of coin-op arcade games.

And these machines are going to upgrade to kernel 6.8?

why on earth do arcade machines need kernel updates? the feds gonna hack into the highscores lmfao

Do those arcades run Linux?

I bet you're fun at parties.

Seems like you’re annoyed that I pointed out that what you were saying was irrelevant? And so you reply with more irrelevant crap (on a very nerdy, not-fun-at-parties internet forum for Linux discussion)? Let me know if I got that wrong.

Somebody mentioned Voodoo cards, I had a bit of information that related to that. That's how discussions work; they kind of go where they go.

But I'll make absolutely sure to get your permission before I comment again.

1 more...
1 more...
1 more...
1 more...