Emulex OneConnect and BladeEngine 10Gb Ethernet adapters (be2net)
A family of 10 Gigabit Ethernet server NICs and converged network adapters built around Emulex's OneConnect silicon, including the BladeEngine 2/3, Lancer, and Skyhawk chips. They were widely shipped during the 2010s as HPE-branded and OEM converged network adapters in enterprise rack and blade servers, and remain in service on older infrastructure.
recommendation
It should stay because the hardware is still in production use on legacy enterprise servers and the code is genuinely maintained — a real bug fix landed upstream as recently as January 2026 and the driver continues to flow through stable kernel updates. Worth flagging as legacy though, since HPE retired its Emulex-based converged network adapter lineup by late 2023 and current 10Gb server NIC offerings have shifted to Broadcom BCM5741x and Intel X710 silicon, so deployments will only shrink from here.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
be2net received an upstream-reviewed bug fix in January 2026 ('fix data race in be_get_new_eqd'), showing current maintenance rather than abandonment.
- lore.kernel.org
The driver was still being carried in stable release traffic touching be_main.c at the end of January 2026, indicating an active supported code path.
- hpe.com
HPE marks its Converged Network Adapters QuickSpecs as RETIRED and says the base products are obsolete and no longer available for sale.
- hpe.com
Current HPE 10Gb Ethernet offerings are Broadcom BCM57412/BCM57416 and Intel X710 families for Gen10+/Gen11/Gen12 systems, not Emulex OneConnect.
- cateee.net
LKDDb maps CONFIG_BE2NET to Emulex OneConnect/BladeEngine PCI IDs including Skyhawk and Lancer, confirming the hardware family covered by this directory and that the driver remains present in current kernel series.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local source inspection via shell (`rg`, `sed`) identified this as the `be2net` NIC driver for Emulex OneConnect/BladeEngine variants including BE2/BE3/Lancer/Skyhawk. `lore_file_timeline` and `lore_activity` on `be_main.c` showed sustained 2021-2026 activity and a real January 2026 bug-fix backport, so this is not a dead driver and I found no positive evidence of an active removal campaign. Web search/open on HPE QuickSpecs showed the relevant HPE converged-network products are now retired/obsolete, while current HPE 10Gb adapters have moved to Broadcom BCM5741x and Intel X710 families; that supports `hardware_still_sold_new_in_2025=false` and a low-but-nonzero legacy deployment estimate. `last_widely_available_year=2023` is inferred from HPE's retired QuickSpecs history showing obsolete SKUs being removed as late as December 2023. Result: keep the driver, but annotate it as legacy enterprise/server NIC hardware rather than a candidate for deprecation or removal.