From: Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
To: "Fejes József" <fejes@joco.name>
Cc: "François Romieu" <romieu@fr.zoreil.com>, netdev@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: r8169 misleading firmware error messages
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2011 16:34:23 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <1302968063.5282.859.camel@localhost> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <4DA9864E.2070405@joco.name>
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On Sat, 2011-04-16 at 14:06 +0200, Fejes József wrote:
[...]
> I took a deeper look. It seems to me that the firmware files are not the
> usual microcode type that the device can't function without, it just
> sets up some registers, which supposedly already contain some sensible
> values, so it's more like patching.
Some of the R8169 variants have a microcontroller in the PHY running
firmware that is initially loaded from non-volatile memory (maybe
eFuse?). These blobs contain bug fixes for the original PHY firmware.
> That explains why this device still
> works without the firmware. So my actual question is this: what do I
> gain if I use the firmware, what do I lose if I don't?
[...]
The original firmware apparently is unable to establish a stable link
against some link partners.
This warning:
> W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-2.fw for
> module r8169
> W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw for
> module r8169
is purely based on the MODULE_FIRMWARE annotations, which do not
distinguish which devices might require which files.
Ben.
--
Ben Hutchings
Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it makes it worse.
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2011-04-16 15:34 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2011-04-16 8:27 r8169 misleading firmware error messages Fejes József
2011-04-16 11:04 ` François Romieu
2011-04-16 12:06 ` Fejes József
2011-04-16 15:34 ` Ben Hutchings [this message]
2011-04-17 14:38 ` François Romieu
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