From: Ben Hutchings <redacted>
Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:08:27 +0100

I think this is safe after all because ethtool and MII ioctls are all
serialised by the RTNL.

Well since you said that there was a regression that you're unable
to reproduce, I was trying to find a probably cause for it :-)

I think you should work to resolve that report, and resend this
locking patch once that is sorted out.

Thanks.