Re: [PATCH net-next 6/8] MIPS: mscc: Add switch to ocelot

[Florian Fainelli]

On 03/23/2018 03:06 PM, Andrew Lunn wrote:
>>> That is the trade off of having a standalone MDIO bus driver.  Maybe
>>> add a phandle to the internal MDIO bus? The switch driver could then
>>> follow the phandle, and direct connect the internal PHYs?
>>
>> This is more or less what patch 7 does, right?
> 
> Patch 7 does it in DT. I'm suggesting it could be done in C. It is
> hard wired, so there is no need to describe it in DT. Use the phandle
> to get the mdio bus, mdiobus_get_phy(, port) to get the phydev and
> then use phy_connect().

That does not sound like a great idea. And to go back to your example
about DSA, it is partially true, you will see some switch bindings
defining the internal PHYs (e.g: qca8k), and most not doing it (b53,
mv88e6xxx, etc.). In either case, this resolves to the same thing
though. Being able to parse a phy-handle property is a lot more
flexible, and if it does matter that the PHY truly is internal, then the
'phy-mode' property can help reflect that.
-- 
Florian