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* [GIT PULL] ARM: platform and feature deprecation for 7.3
@ 2026-07-10 21:33 Arnd Bergmann
  0 siblings, 0 replies; only message in thread
From: Arnd Bergmann @ 2026-07-10 21:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: soc
  Cc: linux-kernel, Arnd Bergmann, Aaro Koskinen, Alexander Sverdlin,
	Alexandre Belloni, Alexandre Torgue, Andrew Lunn, Ard Biesheuvel,
	Claudiu Beznea, Daniel Mack, Ethan Nelson-Moore, Frank Li,
	Gregory Clement, Haojian Zhuang, Jeremy J. Peper,
	Kristoffer Ericson, Krzysztof Kozlowski, Linus Walleij,
	Mark Brown, Marc Zyngier, Mike Rapoport, Nicolas Ferre,
	Patrice Chotard, Ralph Siemsen, Robert Jarzmik, Russell King,
	Sascha Hauer, Sebastian Hesselbarth, Stefan Agner, Stefan Wiehler,
	Tony Lindgren, Vladimir Zapolskiy, Will Deacon, linux-arm-kernel

The following changes since commit dc59e4fea9d83f03bad6bddf3fa2e52491777482:

  Linux 7.2-rc1 (2026-06-28 12:01:31 -0700)

are available in the Git repository at:

  https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/soc/soc.git tags/arm-feature-deprecation-for-7.3

for you to fetch changes up to 6cb7a10ef7488720f4379e27575d723a85790b30:

  ARM: mark mv78xx0 support as deprecated (2026-07-10 23:22:10 +0200)

----------------------------------------------------------------
ARM: platform and feature deprecation for 7.3

This is attempt to bring the source code to the state that we discussed
back in 2024, regarding a timeline for deprecating and removing features,
in particular platforms and ABIs that are basically unused and are
also getting in the way of maintenance.

The earlier consensus was to remove these features in 2025 or 2026
after the corresponding LTS kernel release. I would suggest pushing
these to early 2027 now, see the patch description for details on
each one:

 - all board files that are still not converted to DT
   (except for OMAP1 and S3C)

 - iWMMXt FPU support

 - ARMv6/ARM1136r0 (not ARMv6K/ARM1136r1/ARM1176) along with the
   OMAP24xx and i.MX31 SoCs using it

 - Cortex-M3/M4/M7 based microcontroller support
   (stm32, imxrt, lpc18xx, samv7)

 - LSI Axxia platform

 - OABI, OABI-compat and NWFPE are confined to StrongARM based
   builds and scheduled for removal once StrongARM is gone.

 - DEPRECATED_PARAM_STRUCT, which was originally scheduled for
   removal in 2006 (!)

The ARCH_S3C64XX platform was scheduled for removal in 2024, but is
still actively used and will get removed once Mark Brown stops using
it. The OMAP1 platform has some remaining boardfiles and is expected to
get converted to DT.

Big-endian ARMv7 CPU support is not scheduled for removal but marked
as broken the same way as ARM64 has, to reduce the need for testing
unused configurations. This may be removed in the future if arm64 does
it as well. Note that big-endian ARMv5 support is can still be
enabled since the patches to revive little-endianm mode are still
fresh.

Regarding actually removing the code, I would suggest linux-7.4 (January
2027), removing both the board files and any drivers that have either
become newly unused or were missed in a previous machine removal series,
followed by removing support for then unused CPUs a release later.

Links to previous discussion:

  https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/20210109174357.GB1551@shell.armlinux.org.uk/
  https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/2831c5a6-cfbf-4fe0-b51c-0396e5b0aeb7@app.fastmail.com/
  https://lore.kernel.org/all/20241204102904.1863796-1-arnd@kernel.org/
  https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260701212353.2196041-1-arnd@kernel.org/

----------------------------------------------------------------
Arnd Bergmann (19):
      ARM: use CONFIG_AEABI by default everywhere
      ARM: limit OABI support to StrongARM CPUs
      ARM: rework ARM11 CPU selection logic
      ARM: deprecate support for ARM1136r0
      ARM: turn CONFIG_ATAGS off by default
      ARM: mark CPU_ENDIAN_BE8 as deprecated
      ARM: update DEPRECATED_PARAM_STRUCT removal timeline
      ARM: s3c64xx: extend deprecation schedule
      ARM: update FPE_NWFPE help text
      ARM: mark IWMMXT as deprecated
      ARM: mark ARCH_DOVE as deprecated
      ARM: PXA: mark remaining board files as deprecated
      ARM: orion5x: mark all board files as deprecated
      ARM: mark mach-sa1100 as deprecated
      ARM: mark RiscPC as deprecated
      ARM: mark footbridge as deprecated
      ARM: mark Cortex-M3/M4/M7 based boards as deprecated
      ARM: mark axxia platform as deprecated
      ARM: mark mv78xx0 support as deprecated

 arch/arm/Kconfig                        | 80 +++++++++++++++++++--------------
 arch/arm/Kconfig.platforms              |  2 +-
 arch/arm/configs/am200epdkit_defconfig  |  3 +-
 arch/arm/configs/aspeed_g4_defconfig    |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/aspeed_g5_defconfig    |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/assabet_defconfig      |  3 ++
 arch/arm/configs/at91_dt_defconfig      |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/axm55xx_defconfig      |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/bcm2835_defconfig      |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/clps711x_defconfig     |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/collie_defconfig       |  2 +-
 arch/arm/configs/davinci_all_defconfig  |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/dove_defconfig         |  2 +-
 arch/arm/configs/ep93xx_defconfig       |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/footbridge_defconfig   |  2 +
 arch/arm/configs/gemini_defconfig       |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/h3600_defconfig        |  3 +-
 arch/arm/configs/hisi_defconfig         |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/imx_v4_v5_defconfig    |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/integrator_defconfig   |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/ixp4xx_defconfig       |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/jornada720_defconfig   |  3 +-
 arch/arm/configs/keystone_defconfig     |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/lpc32xx_defconfig      |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/mmp2_defconfig         |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/moxart_defconfig       |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/mps2_defconfig         |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/multi_v4t_defconfig    |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/multi_v5_defconfig     | 10 -----
 arch/arm/configs/mv78xx0_defconfig      |  3 +-
 arch/arm/configs/mvebu_v5_defconfig     | 10 -----
 arch/arm/configs/mxs_defconfig          |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/neponset_defconfig     |  3 ++
 arch/arm/configs/netwinder_defconfig    |  3 ++
 arch/arm/configs/nhk8815_defconfig      |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/omap1_defconfig        |  3 +-
 arch/arm/configs/orion5x_defconfig      | 11 -----
 arch/arm/configs/pxa168_defconfig       |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/pxa3xx_defconfig       |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/pxa910_defconfig       |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/pxa_defconfig          |  5 ---
 arch/arm/configs/rpc_defconfig          |  3 ++
 arch/arm/configs/s3c6400_defconfig      |  2 +
 arch/arm/configs/sama5_defconfig        |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/sama7_defconfig        |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/spear13xx_defconfig    |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/spitz_defconfig        |  2 +-
 arch/arm/configs/stm32_defconfig        |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/versatile_defconfig    |  2 -
 arch/arm/configs/vt8500_v6_v7_defconfig |  1 -
 arch/arm/configs/wpcm450_defconfig      |  2 -
 arch/arm/mach-at91/Kconfig              |  4 +-
 arch/arm/mach-axxia/Kconfig             |  4 +-
 arch/arm/mach-dove/Kconfig              |  8 +++-
 arch/arm/mach-footbridge/Kconfig        |  7 ++-
 arch/arm/mach-imx/Kconfig               | 13 ++++--
 arch/arm/mach-mv78xx0/Kconfig           |  4 +-
 arch/arm/mach-omap2/Kconfig             | 18 ++++++--
 arch/arm/mach-orion5x/Kconfig           | 47 ++++++++++++++-----
 arch/arm/mach-pxa/Kconfig               | 10 ++++-
 arch/arm/mach-rpc/Kconfig               |  5 ++-
 arch/arm/mach-s3c/Kconfig.s3c64xx       | 15 +++++--
 arch/arm/mach-sa1100/Kconfig            |  5 ++-
 arch/arm/mach-stm32/Kconfig             | 14 +++---
 arch/arm/mach-versatile/Kconfig         | 15 ++++---
 arch/arm/mm/Kconfig                     | 29 +++++++++++-
 66 files changed, 225 insertions(+), 170 deletions(-)


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