Re: [PATCH net v4] net: airoha: keep PPE offload when NPU refuses flow stats

[Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>]

On 10/25/26 16:25, Chad Monroe wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 21st, 2026 at 5:49 AM, Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch> wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, Oct 21, 2026 at 03:34:23PM +0530, SAYANTAN NANDY wrote:
>>> From: Chad Monroe <chad@monroe.io>
>>>
>>> With flow stats enabled, PPE offload setup requests flow statistics
>>> from the NPU. If the running NPU firmware does not support flow
>>> counters, the request fails and the current setup path aborts PPE
>>> offload.
>>
>> Since this never worked, it is not a regression fix.
>>
>> Why not keep it KISS and report the firmware is too old and suggest
>> the firmware is updated?
>>
>> Can the driver do the firmware upgrade?
>>
>>      Andrew
>>
> 
> Hi Andrew,
> 
> The NPU firmware bin is downloaded at each boot and is present in
> linux-firmware so no issue with keeping it up to date.
> 
> The main reason for this change is to behave better when flags mismatch.
> Previously, loading a driver compiled with flow stats support enabled
> would silently fail to offload if the firmware didn't have support.
> 
> I did not like this blind failure so figured it would be better to
> check what the firmware supports. If flow stats support is not present
> in the firmware at least we can still do offloading.
> 
> The main question is whether Airoha will release variants of firmware
> with flow stats support disabled in the future, or if this flag will
> always remain enabled. If it's just an issue of old firmware (all new
> version will support it) then report + failure is sufficient.
I think the simpler approach would be better. If Airoha would release
such a firmware, _that_ would be a regression on their side.

/P