netdev - RE: [patch net-next 0/9] mlxsw: Support firmware flash

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Date:   Tue, 23 May 2017 15:04:23 +0000
From:   "Mintz, Yuval" <Yuval.Mintz@...ium.com>
To:     Yotam Gigi <yotamg@...lanox.com>, Jiri Pirko <jiri@...nulli.us>,
        "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>
CC:     "davem@...emloft.net" <davem@...emloft.net>,
        "idosch@...lanox.com" <idosch@...lanox.com>,
        "mlxsw@...lanox.com" <mlxsw@...lanox.com>,
        Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@...arflare.com>
Subject: RE: [patch net-next 0/9] mlxsw: Support firmware flash

> >> Patches 6-8 add the "ethtool -f" and the boot-time firmware upgrade on
> the
> >> mlxsw spectrum driver.
> > When we tried using `ethtool -E' for qed we got burned for trying to use
> the magic
> > value [1]. When we suggested extending it to allow some private data
> indications,
> > Ben claimed that this entire ethtool infrastructure is a thing of the past,
> > and we should try using MTD instead - a claim no one bothered to counter.
> >
> > Creating proprietary file-formats, filling them with metadata and
> > complementary driver state-machines could easily overcome the original
> > obstacle we faced. But it raises the question of whether these APIs are
> > valid or obsolete.
> 
> The metadata in our format is needed to allow us to hold several firmware
> images for several spectrum silicon variants in one file, hence the metadata
> is used by the driver and does not get transferred to the device.

Understood; Otherwise it would have been 'data' and not 'metadata'.

>Our code can only be used to transfer firmware to the device, and cannot
> be used to configure the device.

Not sure what this refers to? The differences between '-f' and '-E'?
Also, assuming you haven't started selling your adapters as persistent memory
for storage, what's the difference?