Re: 2.6.29 e100.c non-MII support status? (Re: [GIT]: Networking)

From: Jeff Kirsher <jeffrey.t.kirsher@intel.com>
To: andi@lisas.de
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>,
	torvalds@linux-foundation.org, bunk@kernel.org,
	auke-jan.h.kok@intel.com, e1000-devel@lists.sourceforge.net,
	netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: 2.6.29 e100.c non-MII support status? (Re: [GIT]: Networking)
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 02:57:46 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <9929d2390903010257p7c6fb367ga974767605033bc9@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20090228203757.GA18850@rhlx01.hs-esslingen.de>

On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Andreas Mohr
<andim2@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 01:07:56PM +0100, Andreas Mohr wrote:
>> On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 03:15:37PM -0800, Jeff Kirsher wrote:
>> > He is referring to a patch to add support for devices which do not use
>> > the MII interface which use an Intel MAC.  I have the patch in my
>> > local tree and have been keeping it up-to-date.  I should have an
>> > update on this patch after the New Year.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> One idea worth pondering might be to provide a special struct
>> mii_if_info hookup (fully emulated mdio_read()/write())
>> for the case of the non-MII hardware types of this driver,
>> thus eliminating any added penalty in the case of nicely MII-compliant
>> hardware.
>> But this should be tackled later, now let's better move on with eepro100
>> (non-)plans...
>>
>> Andreas Mohr
>
> Given that 2.6.29-rc now actually has eepro100.c removed (since -rc3 or so)
> and the current -rc6 e100.c does not contain non-MII parts, it looks like
> 2.6.29 proper will actually remove support for some PCI-based non-MII
> e100 cards.
>
> Thus I'd like to ask what should be done about this for real.
> Of course we could consciously decide to simply skip e100.c support for those
> non-MII cards entirely (hoping that they're not THAT wide-spread),
> but obviously I'd semi-hate this (nevermind the fact that _locally_
> I'd have to swap cards, too, which is somewhat more of a problem given an
> older network requiring to be served by "combo" cards).
>
> Simply spoken, it all boils down to actively deciding
> what to do in the next, about-to-be _affected_, kernel version
> about support for cards that an older, deprecated driver did support
> and the new one doesn't.
>
> Or one could just let things progress as-is and wait for
> yet unknown (non-)amounts of scorching user feedback to arrive
> after 2.6.29 has hit their machines ;)
>
>
> My description in the mail above was meant to list things to be done
> _after_ an initial non-MII support for e100.c has been added,
> just for clarification.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andreas Mohr
> --

I am personally sorry that nothing has been done regarding this patch.
 I still have this patch in my local tree.  I admit that this patch
has been on the low priority list, so I will make sure the patch is
current this week and respond accordingly this week.

-- 
Cheers,
Jeff