Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2019 15:40:57 -0600 From: Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> To: "freebsd-arch@freebsd.org" <freebsd-arch@freebsd.org>, "freebsd-arm@freebsd.org" <freebsd-arm@freebsd.org> Subject: firm date: armv5 support removal scheduled for 2019-12-31 Message-ID: <CANCZdfoYJ342=Ej_Ha39JMHwZhaeyPn2YfW9mzYR%2BGss58N6nA@mail.gmail.com>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Greetings, There's been much talk of removing armv5 support from FreeBSD in FreeBSD 13. This talk has been ongoing since before 12 was branched among the key arm developers. The compromise for the FreeBSD 12 was to have one final FreeBSD armv5 release for a few straggling users that needed (or think they needed) this release and it would be removed before FreeBSD 13. The reason to remove this is due to the increased burden armv5 has presented on the system. We have a separate pmap for v5 which has known or suspected bugs relating to unaligned I/O. No developers have the armv5 boards in service anymore. They have ceased being relevant to FreeBSD's success with the plethera of armv7 boards that are on the market. No new armv5 boards have been made in a long time. The FreeBSD project hasn't produce armv5 binaries for 12.x at all (the binaries produced earlier could not have possibly booted, though the userland binaries worked if you could otherwise install the system). Finally, llvm's lld doesn't support armv5. It would ease integration if we didn't have to worry about a fallback for armv5. It would be one fewer dependency on the old binutils toolchain in the tree. So, taking all these things together, the time has come to schedule removal of armv5 support from FreeBSD. The end of the year seems like a good date to select for planning this removal, getting whatever notices should be put into place and warning people about the next release in the most formal way possible (more informal warnings have been going on for over a year, starting with armv4 support removal in 12). I'm posting this now to gather feedback and, if necessary, create a checklist of things to do before removal. Warner
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?CANCZdfoYJ342=Ej_Ha39JMHwZhaeyPn2YfW9mzYR%2BGss58N6nA>