Re: [PATCH net-next v2 3/3] net: mdio: treat PSE EPROBE_DEFER as non-fatal during PHY registration

Carlo Szelinsky
2026-04-06T14:43:46Z

Hi Andrew, Oleksij,

Thanks for pushing me in the right direction here.

So if I understand correctly, I should move the PSE control lookup
from fwnode_mdiobus_register_phy() into phy_probe(). That way the PHY
just defers like any other device if the PSE controller isn't there
yet, and the bus scan keeps going for the other PHYs.

I checked and bus_probe_device() is void, so device_add() won't fail
even if probe defers. And once the PSE module loads, the deferred
probe retry should kick in and claim the regulator before the 30s
cleanup runs. If the module never loads, the regulator cleanup is
actually the right thing to do safety-wise. So no need for the
admin_state_synced workaround or the lazy resolution stuff -
deferred probe just handles it.

Unlike lazy resolution, this also doesn't break notifications, so
PSE is acquired during probe, not on first ethtool access.

Does that sound like what you had in mind?

Cheers,
Carlo