Subject: Re: Porting ethernet over spi driver (powerline device)

From: Stefan Wahren <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 09:24:57 +0200

Am 22.04.2014 17:21, schrieb Ben Hutchings:
> On Tue, 2014-04-22 at 12:02 +0200, Stefan Wahren wrote:
>> Am 22.04.2014 04:22, schrieb Ben Hutchings:
> [..]
>>> Most of the interesting new features are related to multiqueue and
>>> protocol offloads that I wouldn't expect to exist in an SPI-attached
>>> Ethernet controller.  
>> You are right.
>>
>> Btw, is simple power management (suspend, resume) a must-have feature?
> If you're intending to get the driver in-tree, I don't think those are
> an absolute requirement but I would certainly recommend implementing
> them.
>
> Ben.
>

Yes, that's my intension. The QCA7000 isn't a typical ethernet over spi
device, it's a serial-to-powerline bridge. Acting like a ethernet over
spi device simplifies the implementation. This leads to an important
question.

Should the QCA7000 be handled strict as an ethernet device or a little
bit more distinguished as a powerline device?

I think that would have influence on the following aspects:

* Interface naming scheme in user space

Currently the interface has the interface pattern qca%d instead of
eth%d. I think this won't be acceptable for in-tree. But the interface
pattern pwl%d for powerline could also be possible.

* Node name in devicetree sources

Currently the node is named as qca7000, but from my understanding it's
should be ethernet or powerline.

* Driver directory in kernel sources

In my development i store the sources under drivers/net/ethernet. But
for in-tree i see the following candidates:

drivers/net/ethernet/qca/
drivers/net/ethernet/qualcomm/
drivers/net/powerline/qca/

Any suggestions?

Kind regards
Stefan Wahren