The Linux kernel flexible driver dates back to the original days of the kernel back in 1991 and still maintains it thirty years later with a few fixes.
Surprisingly, a patch was installed into the Linux kernel block subsystem in front of the Linux 5.12 integration window around the flexible code.
The child is a O_NDELAY configure for the flexible driver to address spew of messages in kernel log from the flexible driver. Additionally, the driver fails to mount before opening without it O_NONBLOCK at least once. These flexible driver issues are fixed by this new piece by longtime kernel developer Jiri Kosina of SUSE.
Jiri first fixed the problem in 2016 but was botched at the time and then returned the same year about problems. It took almost five years, but Jiri has now addressed the original issue with this new piece.
But long story short, the Linux flexible driver is of course still seen a few times now until 2021. There are still occasional bits for the flexible code as can be seen from a quick Git review with a cleanup of the last year. spanning many promises, among other random works over the years. That work according to last year’s flexible code was covered here by that big cleanup.
We’ll see how far the Linux floppy drive goes around as it becomes increasingly difficult to picture a relevant situation where not only traditional floppy disks are used (outside of hardware). business) but in the context of running a modern Linux kernel version as well. Fortunately, there is little responsibility for keeping it around.