Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers For Long Obsolete Input Hardware: Bye Bus Mouse Support
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Beyond Linux looking to remove old drivers due to the surge of AI/LLM bug reports, the Linux 7.1 kernel is also removing some old hardware drivers simply on the basis of long obsolete hardware. The input subsystem saw several drivers removed this week for decades old hardware.
With the input subsystem updates this week there is a new Charlieplex GPIO keypad driver, the aw86927 driver adding 86938 ASIC support, and the Chrome OS keyboard driver adding support for the Fn-key keymap extension.
Beyond those additions, there are a number of driver removals on the input side for Linux 7.1. Bus mice drivers are the main ones being removed with those not being really relevant in nearly 30 years. There are also three other drivers for portable devices from the late 1990s to early 2000s.
The InPort / Microsoft / ATI XL busmouse driver is one of those removed for Linux 7.1 for that mice support ultimately connected via an ISA add-in card. The Logitech Bus Mouse "Logibm" driver is also removed as another ISA add-in card.
The Palm Top PC 110 touchpad driver is another one of the input drivers removed in Linux 7.1 with that Palm device released in Japan back in 1995.
The ICS MicroClock MK712 touchscreen driver is also removed that was used by the The ICS MicroClock MK712 touchscreen driver is also removed that was used by the back in 2000.
The CT82C710 driver is also removed for the Chips & Technologies PS/2 mouse interface used by the TI TravelMate and Gateway Nomad laptops. While PS/2 is newer than bus mouse, the CT82C710 being used by just Intel 386 and 486 systems is no longer relevant in mainline with Linux 7.1 beginning to disband i486 support.
For newer hardware but still irrelevant is removing the OLPC HGPK PS/2 protocol support as it's been broken for 12 years without anyone complaining. This protocol flavor was used by ALPS touchpads in One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) laptops and broken since 2015 in the mainline kernel.
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See this pull request for the merged input changes for Linux 7.1. With the removals there are 3,374 deletions in the input pull.