[BUG] net: dm9600: false link status

Corentin Labbe
2019-06-27T13:21:44Z

Hello

I own an USB dongle which is a "Davicom DM96xx USB 10/100 Ethernet".
According to the CHIP_ID, it is a DM9620.

Since I needed for bringing network to uboot for a board, I have started to create its uboot's driver.
My uboot driver is based on the dm9600 Linux driver.

The dongle was working but very very slowy (24Kib/s).
After some debug i found that the main problem was that it always link to 10Mbit/s Half-duplex. (according to the MAC registers)

For checking the status of the dongle I have plugged it on a Linux box which give me:
dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0xFFFF

But in fact the Linux driver is tricked.

I have added debug of MDIO write/read and got:
[157550.926974] dm9601 6-2:1.0 (unnamed net_device) (uninitialized): dm9601_mdio_write() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x00, val=0x8000
[157550.931962] dm9601 6-2:1.0 (unnamed net_device) (uninitialized): dm9601_mdio_write() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x04, val=0x05e1
[157550.951967] dm9601 6-2:1.0 (unnamed net_device) (uninitialized): dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x00, returns=0xffff
[157550.951971] dm9601 6-2:1.0 (unnamed net_device) (uninitialized): dm9601_mdio_write() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x00, val=0xffff
[157567.781989] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x01, returns=0xffff
[157567.796985] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x01, returns=0xffff
[157567.811989] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x04, returns=0xffff
[157567.826974] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x05, returns=0xffff
[157567.841972] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x00, returns=0xffff
[157567.856974] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x01, returns=0xffff
[157567.871990] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x04, returns=0xffff
[157567.886974] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x05, returns=0xffff
[157567.906010] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x01, returns=0xffff
[157567.920986] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x01, returns=0xffff
[157567.935975] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x04, returns=0xffff
[157567.950974] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x05, returns=0xffff
[157567.965974] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x00, returns=0xffff
[157567.980970] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x01, returns=0xffff
[157567.995973] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x04, returns=0xffff
[157568.010971] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x05, returns=0xffff
[157568.025973] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x01, returns=0xffff
[157568.040969] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x01, returns=0xffff
[157568.055971] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x04, returns=0xffff
[157568.070970] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x05, returns=0xffff
[157568.085971] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x00, returns=0xffff
[157568.100971] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x01, returns=0xffff
[157568.115973] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x04, returns=0xffff
[157568.130970] dm9601 6-2:1.0 enp0s29f0u2: dm9601_mdio_read() phy_id=0x00, loc=0x05, returns=0xffff

So the problem is the same than in my uboot driver, the PHY always return 0xFFFF.

I have tried lots of hack but fail to bring the PHY up.

So it exsists two problem:
- Linux saying 100Mbps, full-duplex even if it is false.
- the PHY which seems in bad state.

For further information, the PHY is the internal one.
On the dongle, only the davicom chip is present (along with some resistors/capacitors and a quartz), so I think of the absence of an external PHY.

Regards