Re: [net-next patch v2] bnx2x: Add run-time CNIC support

From: "Eilon Greenstein" <redacted>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:38:05 +0300

On Tue, 2012-07-10 at 06:06 -0700, David Miller wrote:

quoted

Why can't you turn CNIC off at the start, and if a CNIC user actually
arrives and is activated, reset the entire chip and put it into CNIC
mode?

Since the CNIC mode should not change under traffic, and since it is a
shared HW attribute, we need to consider a scenario on which one
interface is loaded and running in L2 only mode, and then on another
interface the CNIC is required, but enabling it will affect the first
interface that is already running.

If CNIC is off, the only effect for other users of the chips is
perhaps some dropped packets.  This is acceptable.

That is why I said you should only go from CNIC off to CNIC on,
and never the other way around.

I have yet to see a justification why you cannot implement this
properly, and my patience is completely exhausted on this issue.