Re: [PATCH] Revert "net: linkwatch: add check for netdevice being present to linkwatch_do_dev"

From: Heiner Kallweit
Date: Wed Sep 23 2020 - 16:44:44 EST


On 23.09.2020 22:15, David Miller wrote:
> From: Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@xxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2020 21:58:59 +0200
>
>> On 23.09.2020 20:35, Saeed Mahameed wrote:
>>> Why would a driver detach the device on ndo_stop() ?
>>> seems like this is the bug you need to be chasing ..
>>> which driver is doing this ?
>>>
>> Some drivers set the device to PCI D3hot at the end of ndo_stop()
>> to save power (using e.g. Runtime PM). Marking the device as detached
>> makes clear to to the net core that the device isn't accessible any
>> longer.
>
> That being the case, the problem is that IFF_UP+!present is not a
> valid netdev state.
>
If this combination is invalid, then netif_device_detach() should
clear IFF_UP? At a first glance this should be sufficient to avoid
the issue I was dealing with.

> Is it simply the issue that, upon resume, IFF_UP is marked true before
> the device is brought out from D3hot state and thus marked as present
> again?
>
I can't really comment on that. The issue I was dealing with at the
time I submitted this change was about an async linkwatch event
(caused by powering down the PHY in ndo_stop) trying to access the
device when it was powered down already.