netdev - RE: [PATCH v2] net: add new QCA alx ethernet driver

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Message-ID: <1345756142.2579.16.camel@bwh-desktop.uk.solarflarecom.com>
Date:	Thu, 23 Aug 2012 22:09:02 +0100
From:	Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@...arflare.com>
To:	"Huang, Xiong" <xiong@....qualcomm.com>
CC:	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
	"Ren, Cloud" <cjren@....qualcomm.com>,
	"netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	qca-linux-team <qca-linux-team@...lcomm.com>,
	nic-devel <nic-devel@...lcomm.com>,
	"Rodriguez, Luis" <rodrigue@....qualcomm.com>
Subject: RE: [PATCH v2] net: add new QCA alx ethernet driver

On Thu, 2012-08-23 at 06:35 +0000, Huang, Xiong wrote:
> > This is why we require that portable, sane, interfaces are added to ethtool for
> > driver diagnostics.  That way users can perform a task in the same way
> > regardless of what hardware and driver are underneath.
> 
> I quite agree you on using ethtool to implement it. we did consider it. 
> But ethtool has some limitation, for example, the NIC has built-in OTP (TWSI interface)
> And Flash (External SPI interface),  their properties are quite different with EEPROM which
> Ethtool supports.
> To support such memory (OTP/Flash), we need additional input parameters.

You have two reasonable options for this:
1. The ETHTOOL_FLASHDEV command takes a partition ID and filename to
write.  The driver is supposed to load the file through the firmware
loader and then rewrite the partition completely (erasing if necessary).
Example: be2net.
2. For a more flexible interface, implement an MTD driver as part of
your net driver.  Example: sfc.

> Same situation exists in diagnostic utility. Ethtool only provide two options : offline & online
> That's too gross to locate which part/module of the chip is malfunction. we also need 
> more options to detect it.

That's absolute nonsense, you can run as many sub-tests as you want and
provide separate results for each of them.

Ben.

> that's why we finally selected a custom debugfs interface. 

-- 
Ben Hutchings, Staff Engineer, Solarflare
Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job.
They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.

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