From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: David Miller Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/1] Tell linkwatch about new interfaces Date: Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:05:39 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <20090404.170539.148727646.davem@davemloft.net> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org To: amluto@gmail.com Return-path: In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org From: Andrew Lutomirski Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 11:40:06 -0400 > When a network driver registers a new interface, linkwatch will not notice, > and hence not set the rfc2863 operstate, until netif_carrier_on gets called. > If the new interface has no carrier when it is connected, then a status of > "unknown" is reported to userspace, which confuses various tools > (NetworkManager, for example). > > This fires a linkwatch event for all new interfaces, so that operstate > gets set reasonably quickly. > > Signed-off-by: Andrew Lutomirski The default assumed state for a freshly registered network device is that the link is up. If that disagrees from reality, the driver should make the appropriate netif_carrier_off() call. I'm sure you'll find that the e1000 driver is not doing this and that is what causes the bug you are seeing.