From: Michael Marineau <redacted>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 18:06:25 -0500

-static void rfc2863_policy(struct net_device *dev)
-{
-	unsigned char operstate = default_operstate(dev);
-
-	if (operstate == dev->operstate)
-		return;
-
-	write_lock_bh(&dev_base_lock);
-
-	switch(dev->link_mode) {
-	case IF_LINK_MODE_DORMANT:
-		if (operstate == IF_OPER_UP)
-			operstate = IF_OPER_DORMANT;
-		break;
-
-	case IF_LINK_MODE_DEFAULT:
-	default:
-		break;
-	}
-
-	dev->operstate = operstate;
-
-	write_unlock_bh(&dev_base_lock);
+	if (dev->link_mode == IF_LINK_MODE_DORMANT && netif_oper_up(dev))
+		netif_userspace_dormant_on(dev);
+	else
+		netif_userspace_dormant_off(dev);
 }

Michael, this doesn't work.

The whole point of taking the dev_base_lock is to freeze the state of
->link_mode, so that we can make a decision atomically based upon it's
value and without that value changing in the middle of the decision.