Re: [net-next PATCH 06/10] net: dsa: realtek: rtl8365mb: add VLAN support

[Luiz Angelo Daros de Luca]

Hi Gabor, Linus,

(Sorry for the late answer. I left it as a draft and forgot to send it)

> The driver was based on various code found in GPL sources of the TP-Link
> TL-WR2543ND and ASUS RT-N56U devices. Those sources were using the RTL8370
> specific API for these chips.

The GPL code from both TL-WR2543ND and ASUS RT-N56U devices were a
dead end. However,
the mention of "RTL8370" simply changed everything. I was searching
for a RTL8367 API.

> It was not clear that the two models really belongs to the RTL8370 family
> or simply the vendors were using the RTL8370 specific code as a base, so
> I have used RTL8367 prefix in the swconfig driver. Probably, it would have
> been better to keep the RTL8370 prefix to avoid confusion.

Maybe. I don't know if the RTL8367 family exists. I'm adapting the
rtl8365mb driver to work with multiple switch generations, from
RTL8370/RTL8367 until RTL8367D. I simply internally renamed
RTL8370/RTL8367 to RTL8367A as I can reference it as Family-A (and B,
C, D...).

> > The main challenge with the base RTL8367 is the lack of a public API.
> > Most vendors support it via binary managers (ASUS) or proprietary
> > kernel modules (TP-Link). The only available references I’ve found are
> > the OpenWrt swconfig driver you mentioned and some U-Boot
> > initialization code. I do have the rtl8367{b,c,d} APIs. While the
> > rtl8367b seems close to the original RTL8367, it has fewer ports. Does
> > anyone happen to have access to the original RTL8367 API
> > documentation?
>
> I have no documentation, but the RTL8370 API source can be found at various
> places [2], [3].

I did have it checked out in my dev dir for years but the missing
piece was to match RTL8367R with RTL8370.

> To be honest, I don't remember all the details, but I hope that this helps.

It helped a lot.

I have a mostly working rtl8365mb version that runs on RTL8367R. I
still need more tests with FDB but I think it will be possible to
replace the swconfig rtl8367.c with DSA rtl8365mb. I am still looking
for a RTL8367B and RTL8367D device to complete the family.

Regards,

Luiz