Linux Gets Rid Of Intel 440BX EDAC Driver For Old Pentium CPUs After Being Broken For 19+ Years (www.phoronix.com)

submitted 2 months ago by cm0002@mander.xyz to c/linux@programming.dev

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As some long overdue housekeeping, the Linux 7.0 kernel has removed an Error Detection And Correction "EDAC" driver for the Intel 440BX and 440GX chipset. The driver is being removed not only because that chipset was just used by old Celerons and Pentium II / Pentium III CPUs but that it's been in the kernel all this time while being known to be broken for 19+ years.

The Intel 440BX chipset and the higher-end 440GX chipset were used for Slot 1 and Socket 370 P6-based CPUs from the late 90's. Long obsolete and incredibly unlikely anyone still having an old Pentium II / Pentium III are running modern Linux software stacks on them with the newest upstream kernel...

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[-] dukatos@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 months ago

Hey, I was building computers with these!

[-] KindaABigDyl@programming.dev 5 points 2 months ago

Pentium III? Oh man, the cleanup is getting close to affecting me.

I have a Pentium 4 PC (an old Dell Optiplex that originally ran XP). It still runs modern Linux straight from the distro download page without any other set up needed bc it's an early 64-bit CPU

But maybe soon it will lose support for some other reason like a driver losing support.

[-] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 months ago

Fondly remembered because that was the Celeron you could reliably over clock by 50%. So much Quake 3 Arena.

this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026

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