[RFC PATCH] docs/about/deprecated: Deprecate 32-bit host systems

[Jiaxun Yang]

在2023年2月17日二月 下午6:57，Thomas Huth写道：
> On 17/02/2023 18.43, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
>> (Cc'ing Huacai & Jiaxun).
>> 
>> On 17/2/23 17:38, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
>>> On 2/17/23 11:47, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
>>>> On Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 11:36:41AM +0100, Markus Armbruster wrote:
>>>>> I feel the discussion petered out without a conclusion.
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't think letting the status quo win by inertia is a good outcome
>>>>> here.
>>>>>
>>>>> Which 32-bit hosts are still useful, and why?
>>>>
>>>> Which 32-bit hosts does Linux still provide KVM  support for.
>>>
>>> All except ARM: MIPS, x86, PPC and RISC-V.
>>>
>>> I would like to remove x86, but encountered some objections.
>>>
>>> MIPS, nobody is really using it I think.
>> 
>> 32-bit was added in 2014, commit 222e7d11e7 ("target-mips: Enable KVM
>> support in build system"). I'm not aware of anybody using it (even
>> testing it). I don't have hardware to test it (neither time).
>
> Could you maybe suggest a kernel patch to remove it, to see what happens? 
> ... if nobody objects to the removal of the 32-bit MIPS KVM kernel support 
> and the patch gets merged, that would help us in the long run, I think.

I’m still occasionally testing 32-bit MIPS KVM support with MIPS P5600.

It works just fine so there is no need for further maintenance work.

I’d be sad to see the support go but I can live with it.

There are commercial users for MIPS 32 KVM but they’re all running customized downstream QEMU so I guess it’s fine.

Thanks
- Jiaxun

>
>   Thanks,
>    Thomas

-- 
- Jiaxun