--- title: Nobody Touched This Linux Driver for Years, Until AI... description: Greg Kroah-Hartman removed the Moxa Intellio multiport serial driver (moxa.c) from the Linux kernel, deleting 2,148 lines of code that had been in the kernel... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/nobody-touched-this-linux-driver-for-years-until-ai-started-poking-around-and-it-got-removed-ar8600xna twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Nobody Touched This Linux Driver for Years, Until AI Started Poking Around and It Got Removed | daily.dev og:description: Greg Kroah-Hartman removed the Moxa Intellio multiport serial driver (moxa.c) from the Linux kernel, deleting 2,148 lines of code that had been in the kernel... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/nobody-touched-this-linux-driver-for-years-until-ai-started-poking-around-and-it-got-removed-ar8600xna og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Ar8600xnA.png og:image:alt: Nobody Touched This Linux Driver for Years, Until AI Started Poking Around and It Got Removed og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Nobody Touched This Linux Driver for Years, Until AI Started Poking Around and It Got Removed **[It's Foss](https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Greg Kroah-Hartman removed the Moxa Intellio multiport serial driver (moxa.c) from the Linux kernel, deleting 2,148 lines of code that had been in the kernel since 1999. The hardware was discontinued in 2017 and Moxa confirmed in 2021 they no longer needed the driver. The removal was finally triggered not by a bug report or user complaint, but by AI/LLM agents scanning the dead code and surfacing findings that were wasting maintainers' time. GKH left the door open for a future reimplementation in a more modern style. The incident highlights an emerging dynamic: while AI isn't writing Linux kernel code, it is influencing which legacy code gets cleaned up — and separately, GKH has also begun rejecting LLM-generated patches for the kernel's staging tree. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why was the Moxa Intellio driver removed from the Linux kernel? The Moxa Intellio multiport serial driver (drivers/tty/moxa.c) was removed because the hardware was discontinued in 2017, Moxa confirmed in 2021 they no longer needed it, and AI/LLM agents had started scanning the 27-year-old dead code and surfacing findings that wasted maintainer time. Greg Kroah-Hartman sent the removal patch on August 3, stripping 2,148 lines of code. The driver could return in a more modern form if needed. _Kernel contributors tracking legacy code cleanup and LLM impact on open source follow these decisions on daily.dev._ ### How many lines of code were removed when the Moxa driver was deleted from the Linux kernel? The removal of the Moxa Intellio driver deleted 2,148 lines in total: 2,137 lines of driver code from drivers/tty/moxa.c, plus the associated Kconfig and Makefile entries. The driver had been part of the kernel since 1999, making it roughly 27 years old at the time of removal. _Developers watching how the Linux kernel handles legacy code and technical debt find coverage like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Linux Dropping Old Drivers, AI Detected Vulnerabilities & Other Kernel Highlights Of Q2](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-dropping-old-drivers-ai-detected-vulnerabilities-other-kernel-highlights-of-q2-knezzxntg) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux 7.3 Introduces 8250\_mxpcie Driver For Moxa PCIe Multi-Port Serial Boards](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-3-introduces-8250-mxpcie-driver-for-moxa-pcie-multi-port-serial-boards-lg8c4houx) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI Code Gets Approved in the Linux Kernel… But With Strings Attached](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-code-gets-approved-in-the-linux-kernel-but-with-strings-attached-0nh5ps1dc) · It's Foss · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/nobody-touched-this-linux-driver-for-years-until-ai-started-poking-around-and-it-got-removed-ar8600xna) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Nobody Touched This Linux Driver for Years, Until AI Started Poking Around and It Got Removed","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/nobody-touched-this-linux-driver-for-years-until-ai-started-poking-around-and-it-got-removed-ar8600xna","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/nobody-touched-this-linux-driver-for-years-until-ai-started-poking-around-and-it-got-removed-ar8600xna"},"datePublished":"2026-08-07T04:44:59.245Z","dateModified":"2026-08-07T04:48:23.500Z","description":"Greg Kroah-Hartman removed the Moxa Intellio multiport serial driver (moxa.c) from the Linux kernel, deleting 2,148 lines of code that had been in the kernel...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b99445adb89557fd27290e0720bb2155?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b99445adb89557fd27290e0720bb2155?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"It's Foss","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"It's Foss","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/582e3faed71842bfb9d3840a787d6700","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/nobody-touched-this-linux-driver-for-years-until-ai-started-poking-around-and-it-got-removed-ar8600xna","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"linux,llm,hardware","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It's Foss","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Nobody Touched This Linux Driver for Years, Until AI Started Poking Around and It Got Removed"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/nobody-touched-this-linux-driver-for-years-until-ai-started-poking-around-and-it-got-removed-ar8600xna#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why was the Moxa Intellio driver removed from the Linux kernel?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The Moxa Intellio multiport serial driver (drivers/tty/moxa.c) was removed because the hardware was discontinued in 2017, Moxa confirmed in 2021 they no longer needed it, and AI/LLM agents had started scanning the 27-year-old dead code and surfacing findings that wasted maintainer time. 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