powerpc, fs_enet: scanning PHY after Linux is up

[Grant Likely]

On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 1:32 AM, Heiko Schocher <hs at denx.de> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> we have on the mgcoge arch/powerpc/boot/dts/mgcoge.dts 3 fs_enet
> devices. The first is accessible on boot, and so get correct
> probed and works fine. For the other two fs_enet devices the PHYs
> are on startup in reset, and gets later, through userapplikations,
> out of reset ... so, on bootup, this 2 fs_enet devices could
> not detect the PHY in drivers/of/of_mdio.c of_mdiobus_register(),
> and if we want to use them later, we get for example:
>
> -bash-3.2# ifconfig eth2 172.31.31.33
> net eth2: Could not attach to PHY
> SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device
>
> So the problem is, that we cannot rescan the PHYs, if they are
> accessible. Also we could not load the fs_enet driver as a module,
> because the first port is used fix.
>
> So, first question which comes in my mind, is:
>
> Is detecting the phy in drivers/of/of_mdio.c of_mdiobus_register()
> the right place, or should it not better be done, when really
> using the port?
>
> But we found another way to solve this issue:
>
> After the PHYs are out of reset, we just have to rescan the PHYs
> with (for example PHY with addr 1)
>
> err = mdiobus_scan(bus, 1);
>
> and
>
> of_find_node_by_path("/soc at f0000000/cpm at 119c0/mdio at 10d40/ethernet-phy at 1");
> of_node_get(np);
> dev_archdata_set_node(&err->dev.archdata, np);
>
> but thats just a hack ...

Yeah, that's a hack.  It really needs to be done via the of_mdio
mechanisms so that dt <--> phy_device linkages remain consistent.

> So, the question is, is there a possibility to solve this problem?
>
> If there is no standard option, what would be with adding a
> "scan_phy" file in
>
> /proc/device-tree/soc\@f0000000/cpm\@119c0/mdio\@10d40
> (or better destination?)
>
> which with we could rescan a PHY with
> "echo addr > /proc/device-tree/soc\@f0000000/cpm\@119c0/mdio\@10d40/scan_phy"
> (so there is no need for using of_find_node_by_path(), as we should
>  have the associated device node here, and can step through the child
>  nodes with "for_each_child_of_node(np, child)" and check if reg == addr)
>
> or shouldn;t be at least, if the phy couldn;t be found when opening
> the port, retrigger a scanning, if the phy now is accessible?

One option would be to still register a phy_device for each phy
described in the device tree, but defer binding a driver to each phy
that doesn't respond.  Then at of_phy_find_device() time, if it
matches with a phy_device that isn't bound to a driver yet, then
re-trigger the binding operation.  At which point the phy id can be
probed and the correct driver can be chosen.  If binding succeeds,
then return the phy_device handle.  If not, then fail as it currently
does.

g.