Subject: Re: [patch 12/12] Configure out ethtool support

From: Matt Mackall <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:24:26 -0500

On Wed, 2008-07-30 at 14:35 -0700, David Miller wrote:
> This change means you can't configure nearly all of the features on
> your ethernet card.  You can't even configure the link parameters
> without ethtool support.

Which is big fat don't-care for the vast majority of users. Various
popular distros don't even install the tool by default.

Embedded devices care even less. You'd be fairly hard-pressed to find,
say, a BluRay player that lets you set the link duplex and checksum
offloading somewhere deep deep down in the setup menu. And good luck
trying to do that -over the wire- to a headless device. Unless the
device is a serious router, you're -never- going to see anyone go to the
trouble of exporting such functionality.

-- 
Mathematics is the supreme nostalgia of our time.