386 support removed from (latest) Linux kernel

chrism01 · 12-12-2012, 07:36 PM

https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kern...71d1a0b2a82e21

This won't affect most of us for a while, but now you know its coming.

(Maybe this should be cc'd to HW ?)

TobiSGD · 12-12-2012, 07:53 PM

I don't really think that this is relevant to anyone, except hardcore nostalgics and developers of the few embedded boards that still use a 386 based core.
If that simplifies kernel developing and makes development faster and less bug prone due to the simplification I am totally for it. If you really still need to use 386 hardware I doubt that the changes to the kernel that will be made in the future are relevant for your hardware at all, so you can simply stick with a current stable kernel. Or switch to one of the BSDs.

cseanburns · 12-13-2012, 01:20 AM

What every happened to support for the 286?!

TobiSGD · 12-13-2012, 05:40 AM

EDIT: Nevermind.

onebuck · 12-13-2012, 02:59 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by cseanburns

What every happened to support for the 286?!

From Building Embedded Linux Systems, 2nd Edition;

Quote:

16-Bit Linux?
Strictly speaking, the previous statement regarding Linux’s inability to run on any pro-
cessor below 32 bits is not entirely true. There have been Linux ports to a number of
odd processors. The Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset (ELKS) project found at http://
elks.sourceforge.net/, for example, was aimed at running Linux on 16-bit processors,
such as the Intel 8086 and 286. It has seen several attempts at revival over the past few
years, and even may well work for some users by the time you read this edition, but it
is really strictly a research project at this point—you won’t see a vendor offering support
for Linux on an 80286. The point here is that if you choose to use Linux on a processor
lower than 32 bits, it is absolutely certain that you will be on your own. Even if you get
the kernel to boot, the range of applications is limited.

You can find other references (Google or DuckDuckGo) if you really want to work with older arch but do not expect to get very far.

EDIT: Notice the above reference is for embedded but you can find other information. As I said good luck!

sundialsvcs · 12-13-2012, 10:45 PM

There does come a point in time when you can safely-enough say that, even if the hardware is "386-compatible," in the sense that it is capable of running software which assumes no more than "386," the chip itself most certainly is not an 80386 microprocessor. You can, at some point, "sunset" support for that particular physical CPU. That time has reasonably come.

onebuck · 12-14-2012, 09:08 AM

Hi,

I agree with the sunset rule. World users may still need to run a Gnu/Linux on older equipment but they should not expect newer releases to run on legacy equipment. Those users will still have access to earlier releases of Gnu/Linux that could be used.

Some maintainers do support security updates for earlier releases. One example would be Slackware, PV did drop some earlier release from the support list this past year.