Vancouver Linux Users Group Linkedin After linux 6.15, the kernel will no longer support intel’s ancient 486 chips or the first batch of pentium processors lacking time stamp counter (tsc) and cmpxchg8b (cx8) instructions. that means the end of the road for silicon like the idt winchip and amd’s elan range. Perhaps it is time to send your 37 year old intel 486 system into retirement, as far as modern linux goes, as os kernel developers appear to have started to dismantle support for this.
Linux Kills 486 Support Vancouver Linux Users Group Linux kernel maintainers are following through on removing intel 486 support linux devs think even one second spent on 486 support is a second too many. If you're still rocking a '90s or '00s pentium, though, worry not—it seems likely the linux kernel will still support that generation of chips for years to come. There's a proposed change for linux version 7.1 that, if merged, will begin the process of dismantling the support for intel's 486 processors. What's happening? back in april 2025, kernel maintainer ingo molnár posted an rfc patch series to the linux kernel mailing list, proposing to raise the minimum supported x86 32 cpu. the new floor would require chips with both a time stamp counter (tsc) and cmpxchg8b (cx8) instruction support.
How To Remove Linux Users From A Group Its Linux Foss There's a proposed change for linux version 7.1 that, if merged, will begin the process of dismantling the support for intel's 486 processors. What's happening? back in april 2025, kernel maintainer ingo molnár posted an rfc patch series to the linux kernel mailing list, proposing to raise the minimum supported x86 32 cpu. the new floor would require chips with both a time stamp counter (tsc) and cmpxchg8b (cx8) instruction support. Linux i486 support removed — a sentence that marks the end of one of the longest running hardware legacies in modern computing. with the upcoming linux 7.1 kernel, developers are officially phasing out support for intel’s i486 processors, closing a chapter that spans more than three decades. It's taken nearly a full version number to get the pieces in order, but the long awaited end of 486 chip support in the linux kernel appears to be nigh with linux 7.1's release later this year. slated for the 7.1 merge window is a patch that veteran linux kernel contributor ingo molnar queued up at the end of march, but which went widely unnoticed until over the weekend. if merged, the patch. It's that patch that looks destined for merging in linux 7.1 so users will no longer be able to build an i486 kernel image. after that in a following kernel series, the actual i486 cpu support code can be gutted to lower the maintenance burden moving forward. "a patch queued into one of the development branches ahead of the upcoming linux 7.1 merge window is set to finally begin the process of phasing out and ultimately removing intel 486 cpu support from the linux kernel.".
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