Subject: Re: [e1000]: flow control on by default - good idea really?

From: Auke Kok <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 10:18:54 -0700

jamal wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-16-10 at 11:55 -0700, Auke Kok wrote:
>> jamal wrote:
> 
>>> I think when the e1000 says via ethtool "rx is on" - it means that it 
>>> is _advertising_ flow control as opposed to detecting partner has flow
>>> control capability.
>>> Auke, can you also check this as well?
>> Just found this in my todo box - a bit late :(
>>
>> yes, that appears to be the correct interpretation: we never read back the 
>> detected FC  state from the hardware.
> 
> It sounds to me that ethttool needs to have this semantic fix.
> IOW, ethttool doesnt differentiate the two items:
> a) advertised parameters.
> b) link partner negotiated parameters.
> 
> and instead #a becomes #b after negotiation.

that's odd and confusing, we should keep them separate.

> methinks this needs fixing. Dave? Jeff?

Alternatively, we can report in the driver at link up time what FC settings were 
succesfull using printk. The output of `eththool eth0` would be the best place to put 
this output as well since that displays "status" and not "settings" which are displayed 
with '-a|-A' options of ethtool. Lets keep `-a|-A` the same and work on showing 
negotiated FC parameters in `ethtool ethX` instead.

Auke