Documentation: Remove kernel module documentation.

As of Open vSwitch release 2.18 the OVS kernel module is no longer
supported.  Pull the documentation references.

Reviewed-by: David Marchand <david.marchand@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Rose <gvrose8192@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Ilya Maximets <i.maximets@ovn.org>

Documentation/faq/releases.rst

@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ Q: What Linux kernel versions does each Open vSwitch release work with?
     2.15.x       3.16 to 5.8
     2.16.x       3.16 to 5.8
     2.17.x       3.16 to 5.8
+    2.18.x       N/A
     ============ ==============
 
     Open vSwitch userspace should also work with the Linux kernel module built
@@ -110,7 +111,8 @@ Q: Are all features available with all datapaths?
     Linux OVS tree
       The datapath implemented by the Linux kernel module distributed with
       the OVS source tree. This datapath is deprecated starting with OVS
-      2.15.x and support capped at Linux kernel version 5.8.
+      2.15.x and support capped at Linux kernel version 5.8. As of OVS 2.18.x
+      the Linux OVS tree is no longer supported.
 
     Userspace
       This datapath supports conventional system devices as well as

Documentation/internals/contributing/backporting-patches.rst

@@ -119,6 +119,13 @@ userspace changes.
 How to backport kernel patches
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
+These instructions only apply to Open vSwitch releases 2.17 and older.
+As of Open vSwitch branch 2.18 the Open vSwitch kernel module is no
+longer supported and only the Linux openvswitch kernel module is used.
+In the case of Open vSwitch releases 2.17 and older, kernel backports
+may be required for bux fixes and feature implementation so these
+instructions are preserved for that reason.
+
 First, the patch should be submitted upstream to `netdev`. When the patch has
 been applied to `net-next`, it is ready to be backported. Starting from the
 Linux tree, use ``git format-patch`` to format each patch that should be

Documentation/intro/install/fedora.rst

@@ -132,36 +132,12 @@ tests.  This can take several minutes.
     $ make rpm-fedora RPMBUILD_OPT="--with check"
 
 
-Kernel OVS Tree Datapath RPM
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-To build the Open vSwitch kernel module for the currently running kernel
-version, run:
-
-::
-
-    $ make rpm-fedora-kmod
-
-To build the Open vSwitch kernel module for another kernel version, the desired
-kernel version can be specified via the `kversion` macro.  For example:
-
-::
-
-    $ make rpm-fedora-kmod \
-         RPMBUILD_OPT='-D "kversion 4.3.4-300.fc23.x86_64"'
-
 Installing
 ----------
 
 RPM packages can be installed by using the command ``rpm -i``. Package
 installation requires superuser privileges.
 
-The `openvswitch-kmod` RPM should be installed first if the Linux OVS tree
-datapath module is to be used. The `openvswitch-kmod` RPM should not be
-installed if only the in-tree Linux datapath or user-space datapath is needed.
-Refer to the :doc:`/faq/index` for more information about the various Open
-vSwitch datapath options.
-
 In most cases only the `openvswitch` RPM will need to be installed. The
 `python3-openvswitch`, `openvswitch-test`, `openvswitch-devel`, and
 `openvswitch-debuginfo` RPMs are optional unless required for a specific

Documentation/intro/install/general.rst

@@ -302,24 +302,6 @@ example::
 
     $ ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2 -fsanitize=address -fno-omit-frame-pointer -fno-common"
 
-To build the Linux kernel module, so that you can run the kernel-based switch,
-pass the location of the kernel build directory on ``--with-linux``. For
-example, to build for a running instance of Linux::
-
-    $ ./configure --with-linux=/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build
-
-.. note::
-  If ``--with-linux`` requests building for an unsupported version of Linux,
-  then ``configure`` will fail with an error message. Refer to the
-  :doc:`/faq/index` for advice in that case.
-
-If you wish to build the kernel module for an architecture other than the
-architecture of the machine used for the build, you may specify the kernel
-architecture string using the KARCH variable when invoking the configure
-script. For example, to build for MIPS with Linux::
-
-    $ ./configure --with-linux=/path/to/linux KARCH=mips
-
 If you plan to do much Open vSwitch development, you might want to add
 ``--enable-Werror``, which adds the ``-Werror`` option to the compiler command
 line, turning warnings into errors. That makes it impossible to miss warnings
@@ -390,51 +372,6 @@ Building
 
        $ make install
 
-5. If you built kernel modules, you may install them, e.g.::
-
-       $ make modules_install
-
-   It is possible that you already had a Open vSwitch kernel module installed
-   on your machine that came from upstream Linux (in a different directory). To
-   make sure that you load the Open vSwitch kernel module you built from this
-   repository, you should create a ``depmod.d`` file that prefers your newly
-   installed kernel modules over the kernel modules from upstream Linux. The
-   following snippet of code achieves the same::
-
-       $ config_file="/etc/depmod.d/openvswitch.conf"
-       $ for module in datapath/linux/*.ko; do
-         modname="$(basename ${module})"
-         echo "override ${modname%.ko} * extra" >> "$config_file"
-         echo "override ${modname%.ko} * weak-updates" >> "$config_file"
-         done
-       $ depmod -a
-
-   Finally, load the kernel modules that you need. e.g.::
-
-       $ /sbin/modprobe openvswitch
-
-   To verify that the modules have been loaded, run ``/sbin/lsmod`` and check
-   that openvswitch is listed::
-
-       $ /sbin/lsmod | grep openvswitch
-
-   .. note::
-     If the ``modprobe`` operation fails, look at the last few kernel log
-     messages (e.g. with ``dmesg | tail``). Generally, issues like this occur
-     when Open vSwitch is built for a kernel different from the one into which
-     you are trying to load it.  Run ``modinfo`` on ``openvswitch.ko`` and on a
-     module built for the running kernel, e.g.::
-
-         $ /sbin/modinfo openvswitch.ko
-         $ /sbin/modinfo /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/net/bridge/bridge.ko
-
-     Compare the "vermagic" lines output by the two commands.  If they differ,
-     then Open vSwitch was built for the wrong kernel.
-
-     If you decide to report a bug or ask a question related to module loading,
-     include the output from the ``dmesg`` and ``modinfo`` commands mentioned
-     above.
-
 .. _general-starting:
 
 Starting