netdev - Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] Revert "net: usb: ax88179_178a: Bind only to vendor-specific interface"

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Message-ID: <cb280dca-b652-4fae-8a3e-d4c5a4e1d251@suse.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2025 13:15:23 +0200
From: Oliver Neukum <oneukum@...e.com>
To: yicongsrfy@....com, michal.pecio@...il.com, andrew+netdev@...n.ch,
 davem@...emloft.net, edumazet@...gle.com, kuba@...nel.org
Cc: marcan@...can.st, pabeni@...hat.com, linux-usb@...r.kernel.org,
 netdev@...r.kernel.org, yicong@...inos.cn
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] Revert "net: usb: ax88179_178a: Bind only to
 vendor-specific interface"

Hi,

On 29.09.25 09:53, yicongsrfy@....com wrote:
> From: Yi Cong <yicong@...inos.cn>
> 
> This reverts commit c67cc4315a8e605ec875bd3a1210a549e3562ddc.
> 
> Currently, in the Linux kernel, USB NIC with ASIX chips use the cdc_ncm
> driver. However, this driver lacks functionality and performs worse than
> the vendor's proprietary driver. In my testing, I have identified the
> following issues:

True, so we prefer the vendor specific driver if it is available
for a certain number of devices. We accept that as a given. The
exact reasons for this preference do not matter.

Now , lets look at the change log of the patch you want to revert:

     Change all the ID matches to specifically match the vendor-specific
     interface. By default the device comes up in CDC mode and is bound by
     that driver (which works fine); users may switch it to the vendor
     interface using sysfs to set bConfigurationValue, at which point the
     device actually goes through a reconnect cycle and comes back as a
     vendor specific only device, and then this driver binds and works too.

This tells us that usbcore selects the wrong configuration for these
devices. Can we remedy this via udev? Not well, there would be a race
with the wrong driver triggering an unwanted network setup.
This would be better solved in usbcore with quirks.

	Regards
		Oliver