Re: [PATCH RFC net-next 0/9] net: introduce Qualcomm XPCS support and add Nord Ethernet plumbing

From: Andrew Lunn

Date: Wed Sep 23 2026 - 14:38:23 EST


> Non-existent MMDs
> -----------------
> Returning 0xffff on reads and silently discarding writes is what a
> floating bus / unimplemented feature looks like, so I agree with that
> direction. My pcs-xpcs-rk does the same.

Did you read 802.3?

45.2:

If a device supports the MDIO interface it shall respond to all
possible register addresses for the device and return a value of
zero for undefined and unsupported registers. Writes to undefined
registers and read-only registers shall have no effect. The
operation of an MMD shall not be affected by writes to reserved and
unsupported register bits, and such register bits shall return a
value of zero when read.

This is what i was commenting about in my review, returning EOPNOTSUPP
is not correct according to the standard.

Andrew