[PATCH v2 0/4] net: Revive fixed link support

[Grant Likely]

On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Anton
Vorontsov<avorontsov at ru.mvista.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 01:31:25AM -0600, Grant Likely wrote:
> [...]
>> Part of the problem I think is that the phylib code merges two separate
>> constructs; the construct of an MDIO bus (on which many device may
>> reside, not all of them PHYs), and the construct of an MII link whose
>> speed and configuration need to be manipulated.  I've run into problems
>> myself on how best to handle things like Ethernet switches which
>> definitely do not behave like PHYs and the phylib state machine cannot
>> be used on them.  It seems to me that the whole 'dummy phy' approach
>> is just an artifact of the phylib model not being quite right yet.
>
> Yep. With a bit of phylib rework we can remove all the MDIO emulation
> stuff from phy/fixed.c driver, and leave there just speed/duplex/pause
> assignments.
>
> Though, I still believe that we should avoid two code paths in the
> drivers. One of the code paths will be constantly broken if we do so.

Yes, I agree.  Splitting the concepts also has the added advantage
that non-phy devices will have an interface to manipulate the link
speed without modifying drivers.

>> Anton, once again I don't have hardware to test this, so I rely on you
>> to tell be if I screwed it up.  It has been compile tested.
>
> Works fine here, thanks!

Awesome.  Dave, can you please pick up this series?

Thanks,
g.

-- 
Grant Likely, B.Sc., P.Eng.
Secret Lab Technologies Ltd.