> This is why we require that portable, sane, interfaces are added to ethtool > for > driver diagnostics. That way users can perform a task in the same way > regardless of what hardware and driver are underneath.
I quite agree you on using ethtool to implement it. we did consider it. But ethtool has some limitation, for example, the NIC has built-in OTP (TWSI interface) And Flash (External SPI interface), their properties are quite different with EEPROM which Ethtool supports. To support such memory (OTP/Flash), we need additional input parameters. Same situation exists in diagnostic utility. Ethtool only provide two options : offline & online That's too gross to locate which part/module of the chip is malfunction. we also need more options to detect it. that's why we finally selected a custom debugfs interface. Thanks Xiong -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
