Intel Centrino and Wi-Fi Link DVM-era wireless adapters (1000/2000/5000/6000 series)
Mini-PCIe Wi-Fi cards Intel shipped in laptops from roughly 2008 through the mid-2010s, including the Wi-Fi Link 5100/5300, Ultimate-N 6300, Centrino Advanced-N 6200/6205/6230, and the Wireless-N 1000/2200/2230 families. They use Intel's older "DVM" firmware interface, which was succeeded by the "MVM" path used for newer Intel wireless chips.
recommendation
Worth keeping but its legacy status should be documented. Intel itself marked these adapters discontinued around 2016-2017 and they are no longer sold, but they are still common in older ThinkPads and similar laptops that remain in service. Upstream maintainers continue to fix real bugs in the code, including a July 2025 fix to the DVM startup path and an overflow fix queued into stable kernels, so removal would strand users of otherwise working hardware.
repository signals
sources
- wireless.docs.kernel.org
The iwlwifi documentation still lists support for Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100/5150/5300/5350, Centrino Advanced-N 6200/6205/6230/6235, Ultimate-N 6300, and Wireless-N 100/1030/105/130/135/2200/2230/1000 devices, matching the DVM-era hardware family.
- intel.com
Intel classifies the DVM-era adapters as discontinued products, with self-service support dates concentrated in 2016-2017 for 5100/5150/5300/5350/6200/6205/6230/6235/6300/1000/1030/105/130/135/2200/2230, indicating legacy status rather than current-market hardware.
- spinics.net
A July 1, 2025 upstream patch fixes iwl_op_mode_dvm_start(), showing that the DVM code still receives real maintenance rather than being abandoned.
- spinics.net
A 2025 DVM-specific overflow fix was queued into stable kernels, showing ongoing bug-fix traffic for supported long-term kernels.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection (`rg`, `sed`) showed this directory is the iwldvm opmode and names DVM configs for Intel 1000/2000/5000/6000-era devices. Local `git -c safe.directory ... log` showed non-treewide DVM fixes in 2025. Web `search_query` found the spinics patch/stable URLs and the Intel/kernel documentation URLs; a lore-focused web search for remove/deprecate hits did not surface an active removal thread. Conclusion: hardware is obsolete and only likely present in legacy laptops/embedded fleets, but upstream still fixes it, so `keep-annotate` is stronger than `deprecate` or `remove`.