[U-Boot] Query: Ethernet switch support

[Albert ARIBAUD]

Hi Sharma,

On Mon, 29 Jul 2013 15:33:39 +0000, Sharma Bhupesh-B45370
<B45370 at freescale.com> wrote:

> Hi List,
> 
> I am trying to add support of a Vitesse L2 switch in u-boot (in unmanaged configuration).
> I was analyzing whether advanced features like flow control, link-aggregation etc are
> required to be supported for a L2 switch  working in a u-boot bootloader level.
> 
> My point-of-view is that the L2 switch, should support only bare-minimum
> tftp of images, ping to other ethernet entities, bootp .. 
> type of commands on u-boot and as such the L2 switch u-boot driver 
> doesn't need to address flow-control and other such advanced features (probably
> of interest for a Linux device driver).
> 
> But, I am not sure about the design approaches used to support 
> previous switch modules in u-boot.
> 
> Also I had a query whether there is a common switch framework in-place/under-consideration
> in u-boot, similar to what is already present in OpenWrt code:
> https://dev.openwrt.org/browser/trunk/package/boot/uboot-lantiq/patches/0019-net-switchlib-add-framework-for-ethernet-switch-driv.patch?rev=35292
> 
> Would porting this to u-boot make sense to have a common framework for ethernet switch
> in-place?
> 
> Can you please let me know your views on the same and point me to any 
> reference switch drivers that support these features.

There is some support for switches in U-Boot (e.g. mv88e61xx) but no
framework that I know of; and I suspect what is expected from the
switch in U-Boot is that it does not hamper Ethernet operations,
nothing more. for mv88e61xx, this is done through a fixed configuration.

> Regards,
> Bhupesh

Amicalement,
-- 
Albert.