drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/pcie/gen1_2 · keep

Intel Wi-Fi 5000/6000/7000/8000/9000/AX200 series PCIe Wi-Fi cards

A long-running family of Intel PCIe and M.2 Wi-Fi adapters built into the majority of Intel-based laptops from roughly 2009 onward, covering the Wireless-N 5000/6000 generations, the Wireless-AC 7260/8260/9260 generations, and the Wi-Fi 6 AX200/AX201 hardware. The 9260 in particular is still sold today in industrial and embedded form factors.

keep conf=0.82 deploy=medium replacement=none subsystem=net category=networking-wireless

82%

recommendation

It should stay in the kernel because this is the shared PCIe transport for one of the most widely deployed Wi-Fi families in Linux, and Intel still sells hardware in this cohort (such as the Wireless-AC 9260 Industrial) in 2025. The directory was created in mid-2025 by an active refactor splitting iwlwifi's PCIe code by generation, and received a device fix in September 2025. Debian's firmware package still ships blobs across the 5000-through-9000 range, indicating a large installed base.

repository signals

6 files

12,795 source lines

42 commits, 5y

+13,215 / −422 lines added / removed, 5y

11 authors, 5y

monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 42 total · active in 7/61 months

sources

git.kernel.org
The directory itself was created in 2025 by an iwlwifi PCIe refactor ('move generation specific files to a folder'), so it is a newly split active transport subtree rather than a long-abandoned legacy leaf.
git.kernel.org
The subtree received a device-specific functional fix in September 2025 ('fix byte count table for some devices'), showing ongoing upstream maintenance rather than removal staging.
intel.com
Intel's 9260 Industrial page lists a PCIe/M.2 product with Linux support and marketing status 'Launched', indicating at least part of the hardware cohort covered by this transport was still being sold for new industrial/embedded deployments in 2025.
packages.debian.org
Debian's current backports firmware package still ships iwlwifi firmware blobs spanning 5000/6000/7260/7265/8000/9000/9260/Qu families, which is strong evidence of ongoing deployed-user demand across the supported device range.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Obtained commit hashes and subjects via local `git log` on the directory, then cited canonical git.kernel.org commit URLs by stable URL pattern recall. Intel and Debian URLs were obtained via web search results. Local source inspection (`drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/pcie/drv.c`, `Kconfig`, and this subtree) shows this is the shared PCIe transport for many Intel Wi-Fi generations, including still-deployed 7260/8260/9260-era hardware. No removal signal surfaced; the evidence points to an actively maintained, still-relevant transport layer, so `keep` is the defensible recommendation.