netdev - Re: [PATCH 08/10] net: ax88796: Make reset more robust on AX88796B

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:   Wed, 18 Apr 2018 07:25:45 +1200
From:   Michael Schmitz <schmitzmic@...il.com>
To:     Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@...il.com>
Cc:     Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>,
        Michael Karcher <michael.karcher@...berlin.de>,
        netdev@...r.kernel.org, "Linux/m68k" <linux-m68k@...r.kernel.org>,
        John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@...sik.fu-berlin.de>,
        Michael Karcher <kernel@...rcher.dialup.fu-berlin.de>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 08/10] net: ax88796: Make reset more robust on AX88796B

Thanks Florian,

I'll keep the Asix PHY driver separate from ax88796 for now. Mainly to
simplify testing. Let's see whether it can be used by any other MAC -
can still fold it into ax88796 later.

Cheers,

  Michael


On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 6:08 AM, Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@...il.com> wrote:
> On 04/17/2018 06:01 AM, Andrew Lunn wrote:
>> On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 07:18:10AM +0200, Michael Karcher wrote:
>>> [Andrew, sorry for the dup. I did hit reply-to-auhor instead of
>>> reply-to-all first.]
>>>
>>> Andrew Lunn schrieb:
>>>>>> This should really be fixed in the PHY driver, not the MAC.
>>>>>
>>>>> OK - do you want this separate, or as part of this series? Might have
>>>>> a few side effects on more commonly used hardware, perhaps?
>>>>
>>>> Hi Michael
>>>>
>>>> What PHY driver is used?
>>> The ax88796b comes with its own integrated (buggy) PHY needing this
>>> workaround. This PHY has its own ID which is not known by Linux, so it is
>>> using the genphy driver as fallback.
>>>
>>>> In the driver you can implement a .soft_reset
>>>> function which first does the dummy write, and then uses
>>>> genphy_soft_reset() to do the actual reset.
>>> We could do that - but I dont't see the point in creating a PHY driver
>>> that is only ever used by this MAC driver, just to add a single line to
>>> the genphy driver. If the same PHY might be used with a different MAC,
>>> you definitely would have a point there, though.
>>
>>
>> Hi Michael
>>
>> We try to keep the core code clean, and put all workarounds for buggy
>> hardware in drivers specific to them. It just helps keep the core code
>> maintainable.
>>
>> I would prefer a driver specific to this PHY with the workaround. But
>> lets see what Florian says.
>
> If you are already using the generic PHY driver, coming up with a custom
> one that only overrides the soft_reset and/or config_init callback is
> really not that much work, and as Andrew says, it helps make things
> clearer and properly isolated. As far as where to place that driver, you
> can either create a new file under drivers/net/phy/* or you can even
> register a phy_driver instance from within ax88796 if that makes it any
> clearer.
>
> FWIW, there are plenty of examples where there is a PHY driver used by a
> single MAC, and that is perfectly fine, because the abstraction is still
> preserved.
> --
> Florian