linux-drivers/
drivers/net/dsa/lantiq

Lantiq GSWIP and MaxLinear GSW1xx Ethernet switches

Linux support for the Ethernet switches built into Lantiq (later Intel, now MaxLinear) home-gateway SoCs such as the xRX200 family, plus newer standalone MaxLinear GSW125 and GSW140 switch chips. These parts sit inside DSL modems, routers, and small business switches, handling VLANs, port forwarding, and offload between the CPU and the LAN ports.

keep conf=0.90 deploy=medium replacement=none subsystem=net category=networking-ethernet
90%

recommendation

It should stay in the kernel because the hardware family is genuinely active on both ends: legacy Lantiq/Intel GSWIP SoCs (xrx200 and friends) still ship in OpenWrt 25.12 images in 2026, and MaxLinear continues to sell new GSW125 and GSW140 discrete switch chips that rely on this same code. Upstream traffic confirms the trajectory — an August 2025 RFC added MaxLinear GSW1xx support and net-next patches were still landing in January 2026, so this is a maintained driver gaining hardware coverage, not winding down.

repository signals

9 files
3,941 source lines
45 commits, 5y
+6,111 / −2,151 lines added / removed, 5y
3 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 45 total · active in 6/61 months
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sources

  1. lore-kernel.gnuweeb.org

    RFC series in August 2025 added MaxLinear GSW1xx support on top of the existing lantiq_gswip code, showing active upstream development rather than retirement.

  2. spinics.net

    Net-next patch traffic for mxl-gsw1xx was still active in January 2026, indicating ongoing maintenance and feature work.

  3. maxlinear.com

    MaxLinear listed GSW125 as Active and orderable, with software location explicitly mentioning a DSA driver.

  4. maxlinear.com

    MaxLinear listed GSW140 as Active, indicating the GSW1xx family supported by this directory is still sold.

  5. downloads.openwrt.org

    OpenWrt 25.12.0 still shipped images for lantiq/xrx200 in March 2026, showing continuing deployment of legacy GSWIP-based SoCs.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Local shell inspection (`sed` on Kconfig and source files) shows this directory covers legacy Lantiq/Intel GSWIP SoC switches plus newer MaxLinear GSW1xx discrete switches. Local `git -c safe.directory=... log` shows steady substantive work through 2026-02-10 with no removal pattern. lore-http MCP was unavailable and `lei` was not installed, so lore-style history was approximated via web search results pointing to mailing-list archives: the 2025 RFC series and 2026 net-next patch traffic show active upstream attention, not deprecation. Web search also found MaxLinear product pages showing GSW125/GSW140 active in market, while OpenWrt release indexes show ongoing field use of xrx200 hardware. Mixed family status (legacy SoCs plus active switch ICs) argues strongly for keep, not deprecate/remove.