Status of orphaned ltq_etop ethernet driver: mainline vs. OpenWRT

[Heiner Kallweit]

On 1/29/2026 1:04 AM, Hauke Mehrtens wrote:
> On 1/28/26 21:23, Heiner Kallweit wrote:
>> This driver in mainline lost its in-tree user with commit
>> cd93b4895ea5 ("MIPS: lantiq: drop mips_machine support")
>> in 2012. Since then it has had no in-tree user.
>>
>> Only (?) user seems to be OpenWRT, with several changes to
>> the in-tree driver version:
>> target/linux/lantiq/patches-6.12/035-owrt-lantiq-wifi-and-ethernet-eeprom-handling.patch
>> target/linux/lantiq/patches-6.12/028-NET-lantiq-various-etop-fixes.patch
>> target/linux/lantiq/patches-6.12/701-NET-lantiq-etop-of-mido.patch
>> So it seems the driver is maintained in OpenWrt only
>> (except tree-wide in-tree changes).
>>
>> To me this leaves two questions:
>> - Move this driver to OpenWRT completely?
>> - Or mainline all downstream changes, maintain driver in
>>    mainline, and mainline also the users of this driver?
>>
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I think dropping this from the mainline kernel is fine, if it causes efforts for you.
> This is the Ethernet of the Lantiq Danube SoC, the SoC is probably EoL since 15 years. I assume that all users either use the vendor SDK with Linux 2.6.X or OpenWrt.
> 
> I will not spend much effort on this driver and others will probably also not spend much effort. We can move it completely into OpenWrt and keep it running there.
> 
Great, thanks for the prompt reply. Then I'll submit a patch for
removing this driver from mainline.

> Hauke

Heiner