Re: [PATCH] [MTD] [RFC] New Solarflare NIC EEPROM/Flash driver

David Riddoch
2008-01-13T17:25:08Z

Ben Hutchings wrote:
>>>> struct semaphore access_lock; should become a mutex.
>>>>
>>> Right. We've tended to be quite conservative in using newer kernel
>>> features, since we also need to support old kernels, but we have a
>>> good backward-compatibility layer now (unifdef'd out of the submitted
>>> code) so this shouldn't be a problem.
>>>
>> Ok. A straight conversion to a mutex will likely cause trouble with
>> your reset routine. Not sure what to do here.
>>
>
> We can use a mutex if the net driver is guaranteed to call
> reset_suspend() and reset_resume() in the same context. This is
> currently true (they are always called in a pair by efx_reset() in
> efx.c) but I'm not sure we want to guarantee that.
>
reset_suspend() is documented as being called in a context that permits
sleeping, and I can't see us ever changing that. reset_resume() will
also continue to permit sleeping (although that isn't currently documented).

Cheers,
David

--
David Riddoch +++ Solarflare +++ driddoch@solarflare.com