Re: r8169: Discussion on implementing RSS support for r8169

[Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>]

On Thu, Mar 19, 2026 at 08:56:58AM +0000, Javen wrote:
> Hi, Heiner
> 
> We are now planning to implement RSS support on r8169 driver. This will require significant changes to the existing driver architecture, so we want to discuss it with you.
> 
> Based on our vendor driver which can be fetched from Realtek, the key modifications will include:
> 
> 	1. Enable msix and updating the irq allocation mechanism
> 	2. Support multiple rx/tx queues
> 	3. Register multiple napi and update new interrupt mapping(isr/imr) for multi-queue
> 	4. Implement rx msix poll and rx interrupt function
> 	5. Implement ethtool callbacks for rss configuration
> 
> Should we submit the changes above separately or submit them all at once? Or do you have any other suggestions?

You generally want lots of small patches, each with a good commit
message, which are obviously correct. Given the limit of 15 patches in
one series, you probably need to break it up into a number of series.

Also, having small patches makes git bisect more useful when you
break stuff.

      Andrew