Message-ID: <76d62393-0ec5-44c9-9f5c-9ab872053e95@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2025 22:12:45 +0100
From: Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com>
To: René Rebe <rene@...ctco.de>
Cc: netdev@...r.kernel.org, nic_swsd@...ltek.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH] r8169: fix RTL8117 Wake-on-Lan in DASH mode

On 12/1/2025 9:31 PM, René Rebe wrote:
> Hi
> 
>> On 1. Dec 2025, at 21:15, Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 12/1/2025 8:17 PM, René Rebe wrote:
>>> Wake-on-Lan does currently not work in DASH mode, e.g. the ASUS Pro WS
>>> X570-ACE with RTL8168fp/RTL8117.
>>>
>>> Fix by not returning early in rtl_prepare_power_down when dash_enabled.
>> Good
>>
>>> While this fixes WOL, it still kills the OOB RTL8117 remote management
>>> BMC connection. Fix by not calling rtl8168_driver_stop if wol is enabled.
>>>
>> You mean remote management whilst system is powered down and waiting
>> for a WoL packet? Note that link speed is reduced to a minimum then,
>> and DMA is disabled. Who would drive the MAC?
>> Realtek doesn't provide any chip documentation, therefore it's hard to
>> say what is expected from the MAC driver in DASH case.
> 
> This RTL8117 has a 250 or 400 MHz MIPS cpu inside that runs
> a out-of-band linux kernel. Pretty sketchy low-quality setup unfortunately:
> 
> 	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqEa8Gd1c2I&t=1695s
>>
>>> While at it, enable wake on magic packet by default, like most other
>>> Linux drivers do.
>>>
>> It's by intent that WoL is disabled per default. Most users don't use WoL
>> and would suffer from higher power consumption if system is suspended
>> or powered down.
> 
> It was just a suggestion, I can use ethtool, it is the only driver that does
> not have it on by default in all the systems I have.
> 
>> Which benefit would you see if WoL would be enabled by default
>> (in DASH and non-DASH case)?
> 
> So it just works when pro-sumers want to wake it up, not the most
> important detail of the patch.
> 
>>> Signed-off-by: René Rebe <rene@...ctco.de>
>>
>> Your patch apparently is meant to be a fix. Therefore please add Fixes
>> tag and address to net tree.
>> https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/networking/netdev-FAQ.rst
>> And please add all netdev maintainers when re-submitting.
>> scripts/get_maintainer.pl provides all needed info.
> 
> Yes, I realized after sending. The only Fixes: would be the original
> change adding the DASH support I assume?
> 
> Any opinion re not stopping DASH on if down? IMHO taking a
> link down should not break the remote management connection.
> 
I have no clue how the OOB BMC interacts with MAC/PHY, and I have no
hw supporting DASH to test. So not really a basis for an opinion.
However: DASH has been existing on Realtek hw for at least 15 yrs,
and I'm not aware of any complaint related to what you mention.
So it doesn't seem to be a common use case.

There are different generations of DASH in RTL8168DP, RTL8168EP,
RTL8117, variants of RTL8125, RTL8127 etc. Having said that,
there's a certain chance of a regression, even if the patch works
correctly on your system. Therefore I'd prefer to handle any additional
changes in separate patches, to facilitate bisecting in case of a
regression.

> I probably would need to single step thru the driver init to find out
> what reset stops the out of band traffic there, too.
> 
> 	René
> 
>>> ---
>>>
>>> There is still another issue that should be fixed: the dirver init
>>> kills the OOB BMC connection until if up, too. We also should probaly
>>> not even conditionalize rtl8168_driver_stop on wol_enabled as the BMC
>>> should always be accessible. IMHO even on module unload.
>>>
>>> ---
>>> drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169_main.c | 9 +++++----
>>> 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169_main.c
>>> index 853aabedb128..e2f9b9027fe2 100644
>>> --- a/drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169_main.c
>>> +++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169_main.c
>>> @@ -2669,9 +2669,6 @@ static void rtl_wol_enable_rx(struct rtl8169_private *tp)
>>>
>>> static void rtl_prepare_power_down(struct rtl8169_private *tp)
>>> {
>>> - if (tp->dash_enabled)
>>> - return;
>>> -
>>> if (tp->mac_version == RTL_GIGA_MAC_VER_32 ||
>>>    tp->mac_version == RTL_GIGA_MAC_VER_33)
>>> rtl_ephy_write(tp, 0x19, 0xff64);
>>> @@ -4807,7 +4804,7 @@ static void rtl8169_down(struct rtl8169_private *tp)
>>> rtl_disable_exit_l1(tp);
>>> rtl_prepare_power_down(tp);
>>>
>>> - if (tp->dash_type != RTL_DASH_NONE)
>>> + if (tp->dash_type != RTL_DASH_NONE && !tp->saved_wolopts)
>>> rtl8168_driver_stop(tp);
>>> }
>>>
>>> @@ -5406,6 +5403,7 @@ static int rtl_init_one(struct pci_dev *pdev, const struct pci_device_id *ent)
>>> tp->pci_dev = pdev;
>>> tp->supports_gmii = ent->driver_data == RTL_CFG_NO_GBIT ? 0 : 1;
>>> tp->ocp_base = OCP_STD_PHY_BASE;
>>> + tp->saved_wolopts = WAKE_MAGIC;
>>>
>>> raw_spin_lock_init(&tp->mac_ocp_lock);
>>> mutex_init(&tp->led_lock);
>>> @@ -5565,6 +5563,9 @@ static int rtl_init_one(struct pci_dev *pdev, const struct pci_device_id *ent)
>>> if (rc)
>>> return rc;
>>>
>>> + if (tp->saved_wolopts)
>>> + __rtl8169_set_wol(tp, tp->saved_wolopts);
>>> +
>>> rc = register_netdev(dev);
>>> if (rc)
>>> return rc;
>>
> 

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