netdev - Re: PHY firmware update method

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Message-ID: <7106dccd-4f3d-17a1-0897-604a1025a937@intel.com>
Date:   Tue, 31 Jan 2023 11:56:26 -0800
From:   Jacob Keller <jacob.e.keller@...el.com>
To:     Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
        "Russell King (Oracle)" <linux@...linux.org.uk>
CC:     Michael Walle <michael@...le.cc>, Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>,
        Jiri Pirko <jiri@...nulli.us>,
        Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com>,
        <netdev@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: PHY firmware update method

On 1/31/2023 10:41 AM, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Jan 2023 16:29:04 +0000 Russell King (Oracle) wrote:
>> I really don't like the idea of the kernel automatically updating
>> non-volatile firmware - that sounds to me like a recipe for all
>> sorts of disasters.
> 
> FWIW we had a concept of "FW load policy" in devlink but IDK if it
> addresses the concern sufficiently. For mlxsw IIRC the load policy
> "from disk" means "flash the device if loaded FW is older".

My initial interpretation of this parameter was that "LOAD_DISK" implied
the device could choose to load the firmware from disk but didn't
necessarily overwrite what was stored in the flash permanently.

Your interpretation also makes sense on a second review, but I'm not
sure what "driver" would mean in this context? I guess "whichever driver
prefers?"

The parameter does seem like a suitable place to allow admin to specify
the policy.