Re: [PATCH net-next v6 0/3] net: phylink: wait for a PHY that probes after the MAC

From: Paolo Abeni

Date: Wed Oct 14 2026 - 06:10:05 EST


On 10/13/26 17:12, Aleksei Sviridkin wrote:
On 10/13/26 09:53, Paolo Abeni wrote:
The above looks like a significant amount of complexity for OoT driver,
and I understand it could be solved with a different kconf?

The PHY driver is in mainline, air_en8811h. Only the board's device
tree lives in OpenWrt.

A config change can avoid it, but it is expensive here. Building
air_en8811h in is not enough, since it loads its firmware with
request_firmware_direct() from the root filesystem, which is not mounted
yet when the switch probes. It also needs CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE with
144 KB of blobs, in a kernel that OpenWrt shares between every board
of the subtarget.

Is that the expected answer for a board like this one, or would you
take a smaller change in phylink?
To me this series still looks too much churn for something that has
alternative options. I would like to hear a 2nd opinion from Russell,
Andrew or Heiner.

/P