Kvaser PCIe and M.2 CAN/CAN FD interface cards
Kvaser's PCIe and M.2 add-in cards that bridge a PC to industrial CAN and CAN FD buses, used in automotive test rigs, factory automation, and embedded development. The product line includes single- and multi-channel PCIe boards (such as the PCIEcan 2xCAN v3) and M.2 modules (such as the 4xCAN), with hardware still being sold new in 2025.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because Kvaser still sells current-generation PCIe and M.2 CAN FD boards in 2025 (such as the PCIEcan 2xCAN v3 and M.2 PCIe 4xCAN), and upstream development is visibly active: July 2025 linux-can patches reorganised the driver into its own directory and added devlink support. Older v2 boards are being retired, but newer variants in the same family keep arriving, so the driver serves a small but live industrial and embedded user base.
repository signals
sources
- spinics.net
July 2025 linux-can patch series restructured kvaser_pciefd into a dedicated directory/header split, indicating active upstream maintenance rather than retirement.
- spinics.net
July 2025 net-next patch added devlink support for kvaser_pciefd, showing current feature work and review traffic.
- kvaser.com
Kvaser was still selling PCIEcan 2xCAN v3 in 2025, a PCIe CAN/CAN FD board in this driver's product family, with explicit SocketCAN support.
- kvaser.com
Kvaser was still selling M.2 PCIe 4xCAN hardware in 2025, showing new-deployment relevance for this PCIe CAN/CAN FD family.
- kvaser.com
An older PCIe 2xHS v2 model is marked End of Life, suggesting generational churn inside the family but replacement by newer still-sold variants rather than driver obsolescence.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection (`rg`, `sed`, `git -c safe.directory=... log`) confirmed this is a real PCI driver with 2025 feature commits and current PCI IDs including v2/v3/M.2-era devices. Web search located linux-can/netdev archive pages on spinics because the requested lore MCP server was unavailable and `lei` was not installed; those threads show active 2025 development, not removal talk. Web search also found current Kvaser product pages showing still-sold PCIe/M.2 CAN FD boards, while one older v2 page is EOL; overall this points to a live but niche industrial/embedded deployment base, so keep the driver.