EHEA 10Gb Ethernet Driver Being Retired By IBM As A Relic Of Outdated POWER Hardware
([Linux Networking] 5 Minutes Ago
IBM EHEA)
- Reference: 0001645048
- News link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/IBM-EHEA-Being-Retired
- Source link:
In 2026 it's not too surprising when seeing [1]old PCMCIA and ISA drivers being removed from the mainline Linux kernel source tree and old very low-speed network interfaces, with arguably the most surprising fast being how long they lasted in the mainline kernel. Meanwhile for the upcoming Linux 7.3 kernel, one of the first 10Gb Ethernet drivers is already set for retirement from the mainline Linux kernel.
The EHEA network driver slated for removal is for the IBM pSeries eHEA 10Gb network adapter. While 10Gb Ethernet is still very much relevant and useful today for various applications, the IBM Ethernet Host Ethernet Adapter (eHEA) driver was just found on aging IBM pSeries and BladeCenter JS/PS POWER servers.
This EHEA driver was already orphaned for two years now with no one maintaining the driver. Now in the networking subsystem's "net-next" code it's slated to be removed. [2]The patch removing the seven thousand lines of code driver explains:
"The IBM eHEA (Ethernet Host Ethernet Adapter) driver has been orphaned since April 2024 with no active maintainer. The hardware was last supported on IBM POWER7 systems which reached end-of-support in December 2020. The driver has received no functional updates since October 2022, with all subsequent changes being mechanical API migrations affecting the entire kernel tree.
A search of lore.kernel.org for the last 24 months reveals no user reports, no objections to the orphan status, and no maintenance discussions indicating active hardware deployment.
The code is preserved in git history and can be restored if a maintainer steps forward to take ownership."
With the removal done by an IBM engineer and no one stepping up to maintain this EHEA driver, this is one of the first 10Gb network drivers already set for removal from the Linux kernel. Being in net-next now makes it material for Linux 7.3.
[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-To-Drop-ARCnet-ISA-PCMCIA
[2] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next.git/commit/?id=eb56577ae9a5aad5c15725a4121f9e560842bd79
The EHEA network driver slated for removal is for the IBM pSeries eHEA 10Gb network adapter. While 10Gb Ethernet is still very much relevant and useful today for various applications, the IBM Ethernet Host Ethernet Adapter (eHEA) driver was just found on aging IBM pSeries and BladeCenter JS/PS POWER servers.
This EHEA driver was already orphaned for two years now with no one maintaining the driver. Now in the networking subsystem's "net-next" code it's slated to be removed. [2]The patch removing the seven thousand lines of code driver explains:
"The IBM eHEA (Ethernet Host Ethernet Adapter) driver has been orphaned since April 2024 with no active maintainer. The hardware was last supported on IBM POWER7 systems which reached end-of-support in December 2020. The driver has received no functional updates since October 2022, with all subsequent changes being mechanical API migrations affecting the entire kernel tree.
A search of lore.kernel.org for the last 24 months reveals no user reports, no objections to the orphan status, and no maintenance discussions indicating active hardware deployment.
The code is preserved in git history and can be restored if a maintainer steps forward to take ownership."
With the removal done by an IBM engineer and no one stepping up to maintain this EHEA driver, this is one of the first 10Gb network drivers already set for removal from the Linux kernel. Being in net-next now makes it material for Linux 7.3.
[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-To-Drop-ARCnet-ISA-PCMCIA
[2] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next.git/commit/?id=eb56577ae9a5aad5c15725a4121f9e560842bd79