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

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Message-ID: <20090228203757.GA18850@rhlx01.hs-esslingen.de>
Date:	Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:37:57 +0100
From:	Andreas Mohr <andim2@...rs.sourceforge.net>
To:	andi@...as.de
Cc:	Jeff Kirsher <jeffrey.t.kirsher@...el.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
	torvalds@...ux-foundation.org, bunk@...nel.org,
	auke-jan.h.kok@...el.com, e1000-devel@...ts.sourceforge.net,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: 2.6.29 e100.c non-MII support status? (Re: [GIT]: Networking)

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
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