Subject: Re: [PATCH] Make virtio_net support carrier detection

From: Stephen Hemminger <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:55:43 -0700

On Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:17:11 +1030
Rusty Russell <[email-masked]> wrote:

> On Friday 13 March 2009 08:09:49 Rusty Russell wrote:
> > On Thursday 12 March 2009 23:22:35 David Miller wrote:
> > > If the link is always on, you should make that explicit by providing
> > > a link state handler, and making sure it always returns true.
> > 
> > "If".  We've discussed adding a virtio_net feature to indicate link status,
> > which implies that it's *not* always on.
> 
> Actually, I've changed my mind.
> 
> Unlike a device which *has* a carrier which we can't detect, there's no
> virtio_net "device" which can turn off link (not kvm/qemu, not lguest) without
> the pending VIRTIO_NET_S_LINK feature.
> 

Yes, need that feature, it is really useful for testing.
It is about the only reason I hold onto using VMware.