linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH net-next v8 1/1] Documentation: net: add flow control guide and document ethtool API

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]

Message-ID: <20251127172139.5b4c34d0@kernel.org>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2025 17:21:39 -0800
From: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>
To: "Russell King (Oracle)" <linux@...linux.org.uk>
Cc: Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>, Oleksij Rempel <o.rempel@...gutronix.de>,
 Vladimir Oltean <vladimir.oltean@....com>, Alexei Starovoitov
 <ast@...nel.org>, Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>, Rob Herring
 <robh@...nel.org>, Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@...il.com>, Donald Hunter
 <donald.hunter@...il.com>, Daniel Borkmann <daniel@...earbox.net>, Jonathan
 Corbet <corbet@....net>, John Fastabend <john.fastabend@...il.com>, Lukasz
 Majewski <lukma@...x.de>, Maxime Chevallier
 <maxime.chevallier@...tlin.com>, Stanislav Fomichev <sdf@...ichev.me>,
 Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>, Jiri Pirko <jiri@...nulli.us>, Jesper
 Dangaard Brouer <hawk@...nel.org>, Divya.Koppera@...rochip.com, Kory
 Maincent <kory.maincent@...tlin.com>, Vadim Fedorenko
 <vadim.fedorenko@...ux.dev>, netdev@...r.kernel.org, Sabrina Dubroca
 <sd@...asysnail.net>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, kernel@...gutronix.de,
 Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk+dt@...nel.org>, "David S. Miller"
 <davem@...emloft.net>, Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next v8 1/1] Documentation: net: add flow control
 guide and document ethtool API

On Thu, 27 Nov 2025 16:14:15 +0000 Russell King (Oracle) wrote:
> > >  *	**Constraint Checking:**
> > >  *	Drivers should reject a non-zero setting of @autoneg when
> > >  *	autonegotiation is disabled (or not supported) for the link.
> > >  *	Drivers should reject unsupported rx/tx combinations with -EINVAL.  
> 
> Definitely not. Drivers should accept autoneg=1 because that is the
> user stating "my desire is to use the result of autonegotiation when
> it becomes available". Just because autoneg may be disabled doesn't
> mean it will remain disabled, and having to issue ethtool commands
> in the right sequence leads to poor user experiences.

It's an existing recommendation, coming from 6a7a1081cebacc4.
I thought it's just because of the ambiguity what the settings mean
with autoneg on or off. But looks like Ben has been trying to push
people towards link mode bits 11 years ago already :(