Re: [PATCH net-next] net: Set device operstate at registration time

[Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@solarflare.com>]

On Fri, 2012-08-24 at 12:48 -0400, David Miller wrote:
> From: Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@solarflare.com>
> Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:16:51 +0100
> 
> > This initialises the operstate synchronously at registration time
> > only.
> 
> Ok, this looks good to me, applied.  Thanks Ben.
> 
> > This seems to deal properly with the registration-time problem, but not
> > the case where a device is brought down and then up again.  Many but not
> > all drivers that support carrier detection call netif_carrier_off() in
> > their ndo_stop method.  Should the others be changed, or is there some
> > way we can make that automatic?
> 
> There are several cases.
> 
> For example, if the device does not power down the PHY over stop/start
> it should leave the carrier state alone.  This is the case for every
> NIC that runs management firmware, which therefore needs the link to
> stay up even when the NIC is administratively brought down.
> 
> If it does power down the PHY, that netif_carrier_off() call should
> already be contained in the PHY powerdown code.

Right, that makes sense to me.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings, Staff Engineer, Solarflare
Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job.
They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.