RE: [PATCH] net: add QCA alx Ethernet driver

Hi David
     The code related to hardware of atl1c is quite diff with that in our hand, every time we take much time to find which part should be 
revised for one bug/issue found on other platform/OSes. the new driver make it easy to fix and support new chipset as well.

     We reviewed all patches that applied to atl1c and added it to the alx  during coding. And did tests for both new and old drivers
You could find the result here:  http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/alx


Best Regards
-Xiong

 -----Original Message-----

From: <redacted> [mailto:<redacted>] On Behalf Of Luis R.
Rodriguez
Sent: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:13
To: David Miller
Cc: <redacted>; <redacted>; qca-linux-team; nic-
devel; Giori, Kathy; chris.snook@gmail.com; Olivari, Mathieu; Huntsman, Bryan
Subject: Re: [PATCH] net: add QCA alx Ethernet driver

On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 5:53 PM, David Miller [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

From: "Luis R. Rodriguez" <redacted>
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:50:09 -0800

quoted

The next patch adds the new QCA alx Ethernet driver that supercedes
the atl1c Ethernet driver. For details please read the commit log of
the patch. Given the size you can download the patch from:

What's wrong with making evolutionary fixes to atl1c instead of
replacing it wholesale?

This isn't the way to do it Luis.

I *vehemently* tried to change direction of this driver development to do
exactly what you stated when this driver was first posted last year in October of
2011 [0]. I could not get commitment on that route mainly due to the large delta
and lack of resources to address this. I knew this would still be a hard sale but
what I proposed was a comprise --  consider a replacement *if* we can get QCA
engineers tasked to work upstream and committed to fixing *all* issues
reported,
*and* also properly tested and compared drivers.

The other option we had reviewed here was to get this into staging but the
garbage driver code is all resolved now. Its your call. This is the best I could get
commitment and resources on.

[0] http://markmail.org/message/7dk7ltdcdlx5ksu6

  Luis