[U-Boot] MPC512x FEC/MII

Bernhard Kaindl bernhard.kaindl at gmx.net
Mon Sep 12 23:01:05 CEST 2011


  Hello Kolja,

we also get broken output from mii_cmd when the commit which you show 
below is applied, reverting it helps.

Hardware: Our own MPC5121ADS-based board and the MPC5121ADS development 
board.

The commit is titled:

mpc512x_fec: Move PHY initialization from probe into init routin
This saves the autonegotation delay when not using ethernet in U-Boot",

This exactly what it does, the effect is no suprise at all:

Of course, the move of the PHY init from the fec_probe (executed before 
the u-boot prompt appears) to the fec_init (called only and every time a 
new network command is executed) has the effect which we see:

The PHY is only initialized while a network command (such as dhcp, tftp, 
...) is being executed.

Also, when network commands terminate, the network device's halt routine 
is executed and in the case of the MPC512x FEC driver, it resets the FEC 
unit of the chip, bringing the MII communication down again. The result 
is that we never see a working mii command with this patch.

But not only the mii_cmd is broken by this change, also the Ethernet 
autonegotation process which is executed at the end of 
mpc512x_fec_init_phy() is moved from network device probe call to the 
netcommand init calls:

This causes the the Ethernet link is down after the network device probe 
and the autonegotiation process is executed EVERY time a network command 
runs. This means every time you run a dhcp, tftp, nfs, dns or other 
network command, you get a new autonegotiation process which may be fast 
but may also be slow. You may notice these delay at every network 
command when you run a series of commands to net-boot your device, e.g.:

dhcp; tftp of a boot-script (as part of the dhcp call);tftp kernel; tftp 
initramfs; tftp fdt

In our case, the routers seem to be set up so that after a system 
appears on the network (auto-negotiation complete), it takes several 
seconds before packets are being forwarded to the DHCP and TFTP servers, 
so it became quite painful.

We had to revert this change and I replaced it with a patch to not wait 
for the auto-negoation to complete in probe.
This means that the PHY can auto-negotiatiate in the background and the 
board does not waste 2.5 seconds waiting
for it if no cable is connected, which achieves the goal of the patch 
(to not wait for auto-neg when not needed).

We've had two iterations of this patch so far and I need to review the 
second iteration more closely before posting.

Best Regards,
Bernhard

Am 09.09.2011 11:51, schrieb Schneider, Kolja:
> Hi all,
>
> I have recently updated the U-Boot on one of our MPC512x-based boards from 2009.11 (+some patches) to a current u-boot build and noticed that the git commit  525856d59910c72687ab6201f39cdf1c04cfc15 apparenty broke the mii commands (see below) on this board. The patch moved PHY initialization from probe into init routine. The mii read commands return zero values regardless of previous FEC usage. Has anyone else come across similar behavior?
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Kolja
>
> /* with git commit  525856d59910c72687ab6201f39cdf1c04cfc15 */
> EM10A=>  mii i
> PHY 0x00: OUI = 0x0000, Model = 0x00, Rev = 0x00,  10baseT, HDX
> PHY 0x01: OUI = 0x0000, Model = 0x00, Rev = 0x00,  10baseT, HDX
> PHY 0x02: OUI = 0x0000, Model = 0x00, Rev = 0x00,  10baseT, HDX
> PHY 0x03: OUI = 0x0000, Model = 0x00, Rev = 0x00,  10baseT, HDX
> /* snip */
>
> /* without git commit  525856d59910c72687ab6201f39cdf1c04cfc15 */
> EM10A=>  mii i
> PHY 0x00: OUI = 0x0885, Model = 0x11, Rev = 0x03, 100baseT, FDX
> PHY 0x01: OUI = 0x0885, Model = 0x11, Rev = 0x03, 100baseT, FDX
>
> === modified file 'drivers/net/mpc512x_fec.c'
> --- drivers/net/mpc512x_fec.c	2010-05-03 21:52:48 +0000
> +++ drivers/net/mpc512x_fec.c	2010-05-03 21:52:48 +0000
> @@ -160,7 +160,7 @@
>   }
>
>   /********************************************************************/
> -static void mpc512x_fec_set_hwaddr (mpc512x_fec_priv *fec, char *mac)
> +static void mpc512x_fec_set_hwaddr (mpc512x_fec_priv *fec, unsigned char *mac)
>   {
>   	u8 currByte;			/* byte for which to compute the CRC */
>   	int byte;			/* loop - counter */
> @@ -226,6 +226,12 @@
>   	printf ("mpc512x_fec_init... Begin\n");
>   #endif
>
> +	mpc512x_fec_set_hwaddr (fec, dev->enetaddr);
> +	out_be32(&fec->eth->gaddr1, 0x00000000);
> +	out_be32(&fec->eth->gaddr2, 0x00000000);
> +
> +	mpc512x_fec_init_phy (dev, bis);
> +
>   	/* Set interrupt mask register */
>   	out_be32(&fec->eth->imask, 0x00000000);
>
> @@ -611,8 +617,6 @@
>   	volatile immap_t *im = (immap_t *) CONFIG_SYS_IMMR;
>   	mpc512x_fec_priv *fec;
>   	struct eth_device *dev;
> -	int i;
> -	char *tmp, *end, env_enetaddr[6];
>   	void * bd;
>
>   	fec = (mpc512x_fec_priv *) malloc (sizeof(*fec));
> @@ -663,25 +667,6 @@
>   	 */
>   	out_be32(&fec->eth->ievent, 0xffffffff);
>
> -	/*
> -	 * Try to set the mac address now. The fec mac address is
> -	 * a garbage after reset. When not using fec for booting
> -	 * the Linux fec driver will try to work with this garbage.
> -	 */
> -	tmp = getenv ("ethaddr");
> -	if (tmp) {
> -		for (i=0; i<6; i++) {
> -			env_enetaddr[i] = tmp ? simple_strtoul (tmp,&end, 16) : 0;
> -			if (tmp)
> -				tmp = (*end) ? end+1 : end;
> -		}
> -		mpc512x_fec_set_hwaddr (fec, env_enetaddr);
> -		out_be32(&fec->eth->gaddr1, 0x00000000);
> -		out_be32(&fec->eth->gaddr2, 0x00000000);
> -	}
> -
> -	mpc512x_fec_init_phy (dev, bis);
> -
>   	return 1;
>   }
>
> Kolja Schneider, Software Design
> MEN Mikro Elektronik GmbH
> Neuwieder Straße 5-7
> 90411 Nürnberg, Germany
> Phone +49-911-99 33 5-251
> Fax +49-911-99 33 5-910
> Kolja.Schneider at men.de
> www.men.de
>
>
>
> MEN Mikro Elektronik GmbH - Manfred Schmitz (CTO), Udo Fuchs (CFO) - Handelsregister/Trade Register AG Nürnberg HRB 5540
> Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
>
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