MaxLinear MxL862xx 2.5G Ethernet switch DSA driver
A family of MaxLinear 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet switch chips (MxL86252S, MxL86282S and relatives) aimed at small-business managed switches, embedded networking gear, and industrial equipment. They are driven through the kernel's Distributed Switch Architecture framework and started shipping in vendor designs such as DrayTek's next-generation multi-port switches in 2025.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because this is a brand-new driver, only merged in early 2026 with active follow-up bug-fix work, for a family of MaxLinear 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet switch chips that are still being designed into new products. MaxLinear announced in May 2025 that DrayTek picked the MxL86252S and MxL86282S for upcoming managed switches, and the vendor's own product pages point users at exactly this in-tree DSA driver. Deployment numbers are low today only because the silicon is new and specialised, not because it is fading.
repository signals
sources
- lkml.org
v14 of the upstream patch series added the basic MxL862xx DSA driver on February 7, 2026, showing the driver is newly introduced rather than legacy.
- spinics.net
A netdev bug-fix patch for mxl862xx was posted on March 10, 2026, showing immediate post-merge maintenance activity.
- spinics.net
Patchwork-bot reported the March 2026 mxl862xx fix was applied to netdev/net.git, indicating active upstream acceptance rather than removal.
- maxlinear.com
MaxLinear's product page lists MxL86252S as an active product and explicitly mentions 'Software Type: DSA driver / Host API'.
- maxlinear.com
MaxLinear said on May 19, 2025 that DrayTek selected MxL86252S and MxL86282S for next-generation switches and that the parts were available then, evidencing ongoing new deployments.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Not a removal candidate. Local inspection (`sed` on Kconfig/C source and `git -c safe.directory=... log -- drivers/net/dsa/mxl862xx`) showed this is a brand-new DSA switch driver added in February 2026 with a follow-up fix merged in March 2026. Mailing-list evidence was obtained via web search because the lore MCP server was unavailable and `lei` was not installed; the LKML and spinics URLs show active bring-up/fix traffic and no removal discussion. Deployment evidence was obtained via web search to MaxLinear product/press pages: MxL86252S/MxL86282S are still marketed with active documentation in 2025 and vendor-announced design wins, so hardware is still sold for new embedded/industrial/SMB switch designs. Deployments today are likely low rather than medium/high because the family is very new and specialized, but that argues for keeping the driver, not deprecating it. No natural replacement upstream driver exists for the same switch family.