Re: [PATCH net-next 0/3] net: phy: add support for disabling autonomous EEE

[Nicolai Buchwitz <nb@tipi-net.de>]

On 6.4.2026 19:10, Russell King (Oracle) wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 06, 2026 at 09:43:55AM -0700, Florian Fainelli wrote:
>> That is almost a guarantee given, there will be a broken MAC
> 
> Well, it already exists. modern i.MX platforms use stmmac, and some
> bright spark wired lpi_intr_o together with the main stmmac interrupt
> which causes interrupt storms when the receive path exits LPI. This
> makes stmmac LPI unusable on this platform.
> 
> So, if i.MX is paired with a PHY that can do its own EEE, then we
> have this exact scenaro.

For DT-based platforms (like the broken i.MX), this could be addressed
similar to what we already have with eee-broken-* properties. For
platforms without DT it's getting more complicated and I can't see a
way without ethtool.

Maybe we need something similar to ethtool --set-hwtimestamp-cfg and
make the EEE provider selectable at runtime? Something like
ethtool --set-eee eth0 mode mac|phy. I have the feeling we will need
this sooner rather than later, given the overall quality of EEE
implementations out there...

Nicolai