Re: [PATCH net-next 3/3] r8169: release firmware on application failure

Right now, firmware application failures are ignored, so the device
can keep going even if applying the firmware fails. The TODO also
specifically says to release the firmware on failure, which seems to
imply that continuing without it was the intended behavior, and that
releasing it was mainly meant to prevent retrying the same failed
firmware application later.

Making firmware application failures fatal also creates a state problem.

I don't know this driver in detail, but fatal errors generally don't
cause state problem. The probe method fails, so the device is
destroyed. Is firmware download not performed in probe?

This driver does support a number of different devices. How many do
you have for testing? If you artificially cause firmware download to
fail, is the device usable?

	   Andrew