netdev - Module loading problem since 5.3

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Date:   Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:50:38 +0200
From:   Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com>
To:     Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@...nel.org>
Cc:     Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>,
        Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@...il.com>
Subject: Module loading problem since 5.3

Hi Luis,

as maintainer of the r8169 network driver I got user reports that
since 5.3 they get errors due to the needed PHY driver module
not being loaded. See e.g. following bug ticket:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=204343

As mentioned in comment 7 the PHY driver module should be loaded
at two places in the code:
1. phylib when probing the PHY (based on PHY ID)
2. r8169 driver uses the following to ensure PHY driver gets loaded before:
   MODULE_SOFTDEP("pre: realtek")

The issue doesn't exist on all systems, e.g. my test system loads
the PHY driver module normally. On affected systems manually adding
a softdep works around the issue and loads the PHY driver module
properly. Are you aware of any current issues with module loading
that could cause this problem?

Heiner