[nos-bbs] Linux Kernel Drops AX.25 and Amateur Radio Subsystem Support

[Steve Stroh]

 Minor correction:

This story ran in *Amateur Radio Daily*:

https://daily.hamweekly.com/2026/04/linux-kernel-removes-ax25-hamradio-subsystem-support/

*Not* Southgate Amateur Radio News (which ceased publication upon the death
of its author).

That URL now redirects to Amateur Radio Daily:
https://daily.hamweekly.com

Steve Stroh N8GNJ
(Fan of Amateur Radio Daily and Amateur Radio Weekly)


On Apr 25, 2026 at 08:54:15, Boudewijn (Bob) Tenty <bob at tenty.ca> wrote:

> This is from Southgate Amateur Radio News,
>
> Earlier today Linus Torvalds merged
> <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=64edfa65062dc4509ba75978116b2f6d392346f5>
> a pull request to remove AX.25 and hamradio subsystem support from the
> Linux kernel <https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.1-Removes-Old-Net>.
> While the headline sounds ominous, most modern AX.25 implementations occur
> in software at the user level without relying on the kernel level
> implementation. Direwolf <https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf>, for
> example, does not require kernel level AX.25 support. Other software
> relying on AX.25 may take advantage of dedicated AX.25 Python libraries.
>
> The change comes as a result of AI based bug detection services capable of
> identifying critical issues among code that may no longer be maintained or
> utilized by end users. Torvalds stated
> <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=64edfa65062dc4509ba75978116b2f6d392346f5>
> that the amateur radio related code in the Linux kernel no longer had any
> active maintainers:
>
> Amateur radio did have occasional users (or so I think) but most users
> switched to user space implementations since its all super slow stuff.
> Nobody stepped up to maintain the kernel code.
>
> According to typesense
> <https://linux-commits-search.typesense.org/?commits%5Bquery%5D=ax25> the
> last Linux kernel commit related to AX.25 was 6 years ago.
>
> Additional code removed includes ISDN support, bus mouse
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_mouse> support, and various network
> drivers including support for old 3Com devices.
>
> Source: Phoronix <https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.1-Removes-Old-Net>
>
> ------------------
>
> We are toasted because all my programs are glued together by the ax25
> utilities.
>
> Boudewijn VE3TOK
>
>
> --
> There is nothing permanent except change
>
>                                 Heraclitus
>
>
-- 
Steve Stroh (he / him / his)
steve.stroh at gmail.com

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