Re: [PATCH v1] net/core: support runtime PM on net_device

Ming Lei [off-list ref] writes:

On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 4:29 PM, Bjørn Mork [off-list ref] wrote:

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Ming Lei [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

In ioctl path on net_device, the physical deivce is often
touched, but the physical device may have been put into runtime
suspend state already, so cause some utilitis(ifconfig, ethtool,
...) to return failure in this situation.

I have to as the stupid questions again, sorry...

Just wondering, isn't that really a driver problem?  The driver will

It is or not, :-)

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know whether or not hardware access is required, and should wake up the

The netcore knows that first,  doesn't it？

Really? Does netcore know which ioctls the driver can handle without
waking the device?  You can of course do an educated guess, but I really
hate guesswork if there is a real answer somewhere else...

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device if necessary.  Unless I misunderstand something here, this seems
like papering over driver bugs?

Suppose it is driver bug, and basically most network drivers don't consider
that, and we can fix that in netcore generally, so why bother all drivers to do
that?

Because bugs are supposed to be fixed and not hidden?

Note that I am not claiming this is a bug.  That is still an open
question as far as I can see.



Bjørn