Re: [PATCH] MII bus API for PHY devices

From: Manfred Spraul
Date: Fri Nov 19 2004 - 15:23:52 EST


Hi,

I don't like the polling/interrupt setup part:
- for a nic driver, there is no irq line that could be requested by mii_phy_irq_enable().
- if the mii bus driver uses it's own timers, then locking within the nics will be more difficult.

Could you make that part optional? For a nic driver, I would prefer if I could just call the ->startup part without the request_irq. If the nic irq handler notices that the nic got an event, then it would call an appropriate mii_bus function.

This also applies for something like /dev/phy/xy: With natsemi, it would be very tricky to add proper locking. The nic as an internal phy and an external mii bus. The internal phy is partially visible on the external bus and any accesses to the phy id of the internal phy on the external bus cause lockups. No big deal, I just move the internal phy around [the phy id doesn't matter], but I would prefer if I have to do that just for ethtool, not for multiple interfaces.

--
Manfred
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/