[U-Boot] [PATCH 15/25] SPEAr: Enable autoneg for ethernet

[Stefan Roese]

Amit,

On Tuesday 27 March 2012 11:02:08 Amit Virdi wrote:
> >> The linux-2.6.37 base port has few problems with nfs boot. The boot
> >> fails while getting timeout on attempting to mount root file system.
> >> This helps the ethernet to bring up faster in linux boot thus avoiding
> >> the time out.
> >> Besides, it was reported that few phys on SPEAr board are failing in
> >> certain network conditions which is avoided by enabling autonegotiation.
> >> See issue #115943 in global bug tracker.
> > 
> > Hmmm. This sounds like a problem in the Linux network/PHY code then.
> > Which needs to get fixed there instead of changing something here in
> > U-Boot. Please
> 
> Probably, this is the problem with phys used in some boards.
> 
> > think about situations where the ethernet driver is not called at all in
> > U- Boot (booting from NOR/NAND). With my changes to defer the ethernet
> > probing to the first usage.
> 
> Keeping your changes, we can still move ahead with autoneg ON. I can
> think of two solutions for this -
> 
> Solution 1:
>   - Use fix configuration for all SPEAr boards except the one on which
> the problem has been reported. In that case we can ON autoneg.

No, please don't.
 
> Solution 2:
>   - Enable autoneg for all SPEAr and specify a larger delay parameter if
> rootfs has to be mounted from nfs. This would ensure that timeout won't
> happen.
>
> I would prefer solution 2. What's your opinion?

I have no problem with enabling autoneg on all boards. My only concern was the 
error description in the commit log. This seemed to indicate some error in the 
Linux ethernet driver. As it relies on the ethernet setup done by the 
bootloader.

But again, I have generally no objection to enable autoneg for the SPEAr 
boards.

Best regards,
Stefan

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