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Re: RedBoot - Try initializing default ethernet first
>>>>> Gary Thomas writes:
> On Fri, 2004-08-13 at 06:14, Mark Salter wrote:
>> >>>>> Andrew Lunn writes:
>>
>> > On Tue, Jul 06, 2004 at 12:01:29PM +0100, David Vrabel wrote:
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> The attached patches changes the way RedBoot initializes the ethernet
>> >> devices. Now it tries the default before falling back to trying all the
>> >> others. This can speed up boot times as ethernet initialization can be
>> >> a slow process with some drivers (auto-negotiation timeouts etc.) and
>> >> now (in most cases) only one ethernet device (the default) will be
>> >> initialized.
>>
>> > Hi David
>>
>> > Sorry for the long response time. This is more Gary's area but he
>> > seems to of missed this patch.
>>
>> > I don't like the patch as is. It changes the default behavour. Only
>> > the default_device will be started, leaving the others
>> > uninitialised. People who are using the none default device are
>> > suddenly going to have a system that does not work.
>>
>> "none" device? Is there such a thing?
>>
>> Anyway, the suggested patch restores the original behavior I
>> setup when I added the support for multiple net devices. Not
>> sure why Gary changed that (I wasn't paying attention :).
> I changed it so that all network devices would have a chance to provide
> default ESA (or other configs) for 'fconfig'. Some network drivers only
> initialize their fallback defaults during initialization. Without
> initializing them all, devices other than the default would never show
> up in the 'fconfig' database.
Ah, okay. I can see that.
> Arguments can be made for doing this both ways (I'm still not sure which
> I prefer), so maybe the CDL option is a wise way to go. i.e. have an
> option which enables either "initialize all, then try" vs. "init one,
> try, repeat until found"
Sounds like a plan. AFAICT, the only downside to initializing them all is
the time involved with some devices/drivers. For most platforms, its
probably a non-issue.
--Mark