Status of orphaned ltq_etop ethernet driver: mainline vs. OpenWRT

Status of orphaned ltq_etop ethernet driver: mainline vs. OpenWRT

[Heiner Kallweit]

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?

Re: Status of orphaned ltq_etop ethernet driver: mainline vs. OpenWRT

[Hauke Mehrtens]

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.

Hauke

Re: 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

Re: Status of orphaned ltq_etop ethernet driver: mainline vs. OpenWRT

[Rosen Penev]

On Thu, Jan 29, 2026 at 12:36 PM Hauke Mehrtens <hauke@hauke-m.de> 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.
FWIW I have some cleanup commits on the driver. Would be great to have
the driver as C files to make editing easier...
>
> Hauke
>
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