netdev - [r8169] About the "PHY reset until link up" warning

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Date:	Mon, 22 Jul 2013 12:42:50 +0200
From:	Peter Wu <lekensteyn@...il.com>
To:	Francois Romieu <romieu@...zoreil.com>
Cc:	netdev@...r.kernel.org,
	Realtek linux nic maintainers <nic_swsd@...ltek.com>
Subject: [r8169] About the "PHY reset until link up" warning

Hi,

When a cable is not connected while an interface goes up, the "PHY reset until 
link up" warning is logged. Looking back in the history, this warning was 
added in:

commit a7154cb8326c6015b6c5d9ce482d2a1f4c268d99
Author: François Romieu <romieu@...zoreil.com>
Date:   Wed Jun 2 12:03:02 2004 -0400

    [PATCH] r8169: link handling and phy reset rework

    Link handling changes (Andy Lutomirski <luto@...ealbox.com>):
    - removed rtl8169_hw_phy_reset() and its busy loop;
    - RTL8169_PHY_TIMEOUT is x10 to account for the removal of the
      phy_link_down_cnt loop in rtl8169_phy_timer();
    - added spinlocking in timer context for rtl8169_phy_timer to avoid
      messing with the {set/get}_settings commands issued via ethtool;
    - more TBI stuff.

    This patch differs from the former version on the following points:
    - the LinkChg irq does not enable the phy timer when the link goes
      down any more;
    - the phy timer is not enabled in rtl8169_set_speed();
    - removal of the initial renegotiation hack.
(via git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tglx/history.git)

If this is a (hardware) bug workaround, can't it be restricted to that specific 
hardware or removed altogether (perhaps firmware / other updates fixed it 
already?). Otherwise, what about removing this debug message?

Manually running "ip link set eth1 down" brings the interface down and no 
resets are being attempted. Another way to stop resetting the interface is 
inserting a cable, wait for link up and remove it again. This presumably works 
because rtl8169_down() removes the reset timer.

Regards,
Peter
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