netdev - Re: [net-next patch v2] bnx2x: Add run-time CNIC support

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Message-ID: <1341923634.27035.6.camel@lb-tlvb-eilong.il.broadcom.com>
Date:	Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:33:54 +0300
From:	"Eilon Greenstein" <eilong@...adcom.com>
To:	"David Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>
cc:	meravs@...adcom.com, netdev@...r.kernel.org, dmitry@...adcom.com
Subject: Re: [net-next patch v2] bnx2x: Add run-time CNIC support

On Tue, 2012-07-10 at 05:21 -0700, David Miller wrote:
> From: "Merav Sicron" <meravs@...adcom.com>
> Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:17:00 +0300
> 
> > There are still two advantages in disabling CNIC in bnx2x: Saving
> > resources (MSI-X vector and memory) as well as reducing some latency.
> 
> But, nobody does this.  No end user can do this easily, this
> is therefore of zero value to him.

Most do not, but I'm aware of two customers that play with their own
kernel that do that - they can play with the driver and tweak it to
disable this mode manually, but that is similar to supporting something
outside the tree.

> > While it is true that distributions enable the CNIC Kconfig option, some
> > users that care about resources and latency compile a kernel without it.
> 
> This, therefore, results in a terrible user experience.

We are using the Kconfig since it is meant for advanced users that
customize their kernel to their needs.

> > Can you please re-consider this patch?
> 
> Absolutely not.
> 
> Make it really dynamic, and properly configurable at run time, so
> people don't have to go through hoops to get the "advantages" you
> speak so highly of.

This is possible for the resources, but not for the latency - we cannot
change the HW mode once traffic started to run. Why is that so bad to
support Kconfig as a working mode like we did thus far? We are using it
specifically for users that wants to optimize the kernel, so Kconfig
does not sound that bad in that context.

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