Over the past few weeks, a wave of posts and videos have claimed that “Linux is dropping ham radio support” or that “the kernel developers are erasing amateur radio.”
It sounds dramatic — but it’s not true.
Here’s what’s actually happening, why it’s happening, and what it means for your nodes, hotspots, and packet setups.
What Linux Is Really Removing
The Linux kernel team is removing a handful of very old, unmaintained drivers that haven’t been updated in 10–20 years. These include:
- Obsolete AX.25 kernel drivers
- Old Baycom‑style serial modem drivers
- Legacy packet radio TNC interfaces
- Experimental soundmodem drivers nobody maintains
These drivers were written for hardware from the 1980s and 1990s — ISA cards, parallel‑port TNCs, and early packet radio devices that almost no one uses today.
They were removed because:
- They no longer compile cleanly
- They have no active maintainer
- They contain outdated or insecure code
- They clutter the kernel with dead modules
This is normal housekeeping, not an attack on amateur radio.
What Linux Is Not Removing
This is the part that gets lost in the panic.
Linux is not removing:
- AX.25 networking support
- KISS TNC support
- Direwolf compatibility
- USB sound cards
- USB serial CAT control
- Hamlib
- AllStar / Asterisk
- Pi‑Star hotspot support
- DMR / D‑Star / YSF digital modes
- APRS tools
- Winlink tools
- Anything used by modern ham radio systems
If your setup is newer than 2005, you are completely unaffected.
Will My Nodes Still Work?
Yes — 100% yes.
Your:
- AllStar node
- Pi‑Star hotspot
- Direwolf packet node
- APRS iGate
- Winlink RMS
- M17 reflector
- JS8Call / FT8 / WSJT‑X station
…all rely on user‑space software, standard USB/serial drivers, and ALSA sound.
None of that is being removed.
The removed drivers were for hardware that predates the Raspberry Pi by two decades.
Why People Think “Ham Radio Is Being Erased”
A few posts online took a kernel patch note like:
“Remove unmaintained AX.25 legacy drivers.”
…and turned it into:
“Linux is removing ham radio support!”
That’s not what’s happening.
The kernel team is removing dead code, not removing amateur radio from Linux.
Modern Ham Radio on Linux Is Alive and Well
In fact, Linux is still the strongest platform for:
- Digital modes
- Packet radio
- Hotspots
- SDR
- Remote rig control
- APRS
- Winlink
- AllStar
- M17
And the most important ham radio tools — Direwolf, WSJT‑X, fldigi, Hamlib, and Asterisk — are actively maintained and widely used.
Linux remains the backbone of ham radio infrastructure.
Bottom Line
Linux is not dropping ham radio support.
Linux is not erasing amateur radio.
Linux is not breaking your nodes.
What’s being removed are ancient, unmaintained drivers for hardware that almost no one uses anymore.
Your modern ham radio software and hardware will continue to work exactly as they always have.