Future of OSS on Linux

[Anton2]

Could somebody explain the future perspectives of OSS in Linux in conjunction with the following information about linux kernel 4.15 release?

_ttp://news.softpedia.com/news/gnu-linux-libre-4-15-kernel-officially-released-for-those-who-seek-100-freedom-519595.shtml

"Also, it removes the code to deblob the OSS sound drivers, and the ap1302 driver from staging as they were removed upstream."

_ttps://lkml.org/lkml/2017/11/14/346

"The biggest change from diffstat POV is the removal
of the legacy OSS driver codes that have been already disabled for a
long time."

[seawright]

The OSS sound drivers that were formally included in the Linux kernel had the same genesis as the Open Sound System discussed in this forum.
See http://www.opensound.com/ossfree/ for details.
There is also README file in the kernel documentation that explains the situation with OssFree and its relation to Open Sound System.
https://www.kernel.org/doc/readme/Docum ... README.OSS
As Alan Cox is no longer a kernel maintainer I am surprised that OSS has remained in the kernel this long.
More worryingly is that the release of Linux kernel 4.15 has broken the official Open Sound System due to changes to the timer API in linux/timer.h.
https://lwn.net/Articles/735887/

[igorzwx]

Could somebody explain the future perspectives of OSS in Linux in conjunction with the following information about linux kernel 4.15 release?

The biggest change from diffstat POV is the removal
of the legacy OSS driver codes that have been already disabled for a
long time. _https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/11/14/346

What was removed is the legacy OSS v.3 (OSS3) driver codes "that have been already disabled for a
long time."

This does not concern OSS4 users.
You are using OSS v.4 (OSS4). Right?

OSS4 was never enabled in the Linux kernel.
It was never included into the official releases of the Linux kernel.
There is nothing to remove.

See also:
State of sound in Linux not so sorry after all
_http://insanecoding.blogspot.de/2009/06/state-of-sound-in-linux-not-so-sorry.html
Kernel Deblobing (Gentoo Wiki)
_https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel_Deblobing

More worryingly is that the release of Linux kernel 4.15 has broken the official Open Sound System due to changes to the timer API in linux/timer.h. _https://lwn.net/Articles/735887/

So that, a new "magic patch" might be needed to compile OSS4 for Linux kernel 4.15. Right?

[igorzwx]

In short, the so-called "legacy OSS driver codes" are the legacy OSS v.3 (OSS3) driver codes.
There are useless in an absolute sense, perhaps.
These useless drivers "have been already disabled for a long time." _https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/11/14/346
The Linux developers simply removed some useless "codes".
This was said to be "the biggest change" in the Linux kernel 4.15 release.

"The future perspectives of OSS in Linux" seems to be the same as before. OSS4 users have to practice the magic of patching.

As usual, you have to patch OSS4 to compile it for a new kernel.

The "magic patch" has already been created by seawright
_http://ossnext.trueinstruments.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5862
You can try to patch OSS4 and compile it for kernel 4.15.

The patch can be applied with a text editor, or with the patch command.

Patching packages - ArchWiki
_https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Patching_packages
patch (Unix) - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_%28Unix%29
diff utility - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff_utility

There is a special magic tool, named "quilt", for creating, editing, and testing patches.

Using quilt
A simpler way to create patches is using "quilt" which has better job to manage many patches, such as applying patches, refreshing patches, and reverting patched files to original state.
"quilt" is used on Debian to manage their patches.
_https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Patching_packages#Using_quilt

Patch management with Quilt
_http://julio.meroh.net/2013/11/patch-management-with-quilt.html

EXAMPLES:
1. Patching deb-package jackd2 with quilt
_http://ossnext.trueinstruments.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5811&p=21491#p21491
2. Patching OSS4 with quilt
_http://ossnext.trueinstruments.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5828

Quilt Tutorial - Shakthi Kannan
_http://www.shakthimaan.com/downloads/glv/quilt-tutorial/quilt-doc.pdf
How To Survive With Many Patches or Introduction to Quilt
_https://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/system/i386_deb50/os/usr/share/doc/quilt/quilt.html
Using Quilt - Debian Wiki
_https://wiki.debian.org/UsingQuilt
How to create patches using quilt
_http://michal.hrusecky.net/2011/10/how-to-create-patches-using-quilt/
quilt (1) - Linux Man Pages
_https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/1-quilt/

Quilt has been incorporated into dpkg, Debian's package manager and is one of the standard source formats supported from the Debian "squeeze" release onwards. This source format is identified as "3.0 (quilt)" by dpkg.
_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilt_%28software%29

Guilt allows one to use quilt functionality on top of a Git repository. Changes are maintained as patches which are committed into Git. Commits can be removed or reordered, and the underlying patch can be refreshed based on changes made in the working directory. The patch directory can also be placed under revision control, so you can have a separate history of changes made to your patches.
_https://linux.die.net/man/7/guilt