The Linux community has been hit with unwelcome news this week: Intel has officially marked several of its Linux kernel drivers as orphaned, removing their maintainers following the departure of key engineers. This move is yet another sign of the wide-reaching corporate restructuring Intel is undergoing in 2025.
Just days ago, it was revealed that Intel’s CPU temperature monitoring driver had been left without a maintainer. Now, new patches published on the Linux kernel mailing list confirm that the situation extends to additional drivers and developers.
Drivers Affected by Loss of Maintainers
Among the most notable changes is the departure of Mustafa Ismail, one of the maintainers for the Intel Ethernet RDMA driver. While another Intel engineer remains as co-maintainer, the loss of specialized expertise could slow development.
Another example is the Intel PTP DFL ToD driver, responsible for the time-of-day device on the company’s FPGA cards. With Tianfei Zhang leaving Intel, this driver is now officially classified as “orphaned,” continuing the trend seen in other recent changes within the FPGA division.
The Intel WWAN IOSM driver has also lost its maintainer after M Chetan Kumar departed from the company. This driver, which supported certain Intel M.2 modems found even in Chromebooks, will remain in the kernel for now but faces the risk of degradation (bit-rot) and possible removal if no new maintainer steps in.
Impact on Other Kernel Components
The list of affected components continues:
- The Intel Keem Bay DRM driver loses one of its maintainers, though another co-maintainer remains active.
- The Kprobes subsystem in the Linux kernel — essential for debugging and performance profiling — no longer has oversight from its Intel maintainer, Anil S. Keshavamurthy.
- The T7XX 5G WWAN driver, previously maintained by two Intel engineers, has also been left without active support.
Medium-Term Risks for Hardware Support
While most of these drivers will remain in the Linux kernel for now, the lack of maintainers means they may face compatibility issues, unresolved bugs, or even removal in future releases.
For end users, this could result in a loss of official support for certain hardware, particularly in more specialized segments such as modems, FPGA cards, or platform-specific hardware like Keem Bay.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. What does it mean for a Linux driver to be “orphaned”?
It means there is no official maintainer responsible for updating it, fixing bugs, or adapting it to future kernel changes.
2. What risks arise when a driver has no maintainer?
Over time, it can stop functioning correctly, accumulate security vulnerabilities, or be removed entirely from the kernel.
3. What hardware could be affected?
Devices ranging from Ethernet RDMA network cards to WWAN modems, FPGA cards, and platform-specific solutions like Intel Keem Bay.
4. Why is Intel dropping support for these drivers?
This is part of the company’s ongoing corporate restructuring, which has led to the departure of key engineers across multiple divisions.
via: phoronix
