[U-Boot-Users] Possible TSEC Ethernet driver patch

michael.firth at bt.com
2008-01-08T16:18:23Z

While debugging a board recently I found that the MDIO (mii) command
support in the TSEC Ethernet driver is somewhat unhelpful.

Currently, even though there is a comment in the code that "For now,
only TSEC1 (index 0) has access to the PHYs, so all of the entries have
'0'", all MDIO commands are processed by searching for a TSEC instance
that has the requested MDIO address associated with it, and then using
that instance to run the command, even though, because of the
aforementioned comment, all instances process MDIO commands through the
same port.

This means that it is only possible to communicate with MDIO addresses
that have a TSEC instance associated with them, even though the hardware
is capable of accessing any address. It also means that there is a list
search that isn't needed.

I have patched the 1.3.1 U-Boot code to remove this search, and to
interrogate the requested PHY directly. This means that it is possible
to directly access all 32 PHY addresses.

Is this a change that would be more generally useful to the U-Boot
community, and, if so, how should I submit a more general patch for
this?

Michael