Re: [PATCH net-next v4 0/4] net: mdio: support dynamic OF device changes

[James Hilliard]

On Fri, Aug 7, 2026 at 9:10 AM Andrew Lunn <andrew@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Aug 07, 2026 at 08:59:47AM -0600, James Hilliard wrote:
> > On Fri, Aug 7, 2026 at 7:16 AM Andrew Lunn <andrew@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Thu, Aug 06, 2026 at 09:54:19PM -0600, James Hilliard wrote:
> > > > MDIO buses enumerate firmware children only when the bus is registered. A
> > > > later devicetree overlay or status transition is ignored, unlike on I2C and
> > > > SPI buses. Supporting live reconfiguration also means that population and
> > > > removal can race address scanning, PHY attachment and bus teardown.
> > >
> > > Please make the bootloader work around the issues, and drop this
> > > patchset.
> >
> > This is just fixing OF_DYNAMIC for mdio now, it's no longer used
> > by the AC200/AC300 PHY patches anymore.
>
> Meaning it has no users?

I think OF_OVERLAY depends on OF_DYNAMIC?

I guess it can also be used like this for live dt modification:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/geert/renesas-drivers.git/tree/Documentation/devicetree/configfs-overlays.txt?h=topic/overlays

> We don't add code unless it has a user. To do so pointlessly adds
> Maintenance burden.

AFAIU the patches other than the last one are still relevant regardless
since they are fixing a bunch of generic mdio safety issues in code that
has users since MDIO maps already change at runtime through non-OF
paths(i.e. SFP insertion/removal).

>
>    Andrew