Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 05:38:40PM CET, dsah...@gmail.com wrote: >On 1/21/21 8:32 AM, Jiri Pirko wrote: >> Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 12:41:58AM CET, k...@kernel.org wrote: >>> On Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:56:46 +0100 Andrew Lunn wrote: >>>>> No, the FW does not know. The ASIC is not physically able to get the >>>>> linecard type. Yes, it is odd, I agree. The linecard type is known to >>>>> the driver which operates on i2c. This driver takes care of power >>>>> management of the linecard, among other tasks. >>>> >>>> So what does activated actually mean for your hardware? It seems to >>>> mean something like: Some random card has been plugged in, we have no >>>> idea what, but it has power, and we have enabled the MACs as >>>> provisioned, which if you are lucky might match the hardware? >>>> >>>> The foundations of this feature seems dubious. >>> >>> But Jiri also says "The linecard type is known to the driver which >>> operates on i2c." which sounds like there is some i2c driver (in user >>> space?) which talks to the card and _does_ have the info? Maybe I'm >>> misreading it. What's the i2c driver? >> >> That is Vadim's i2c kernel driver, this is going to upstream. >> > >This pre-provisioning concept makes a fragile design to work around h/w >shortcomings. You really need a way for the management card to know
Not really. As I replied to you in the other part of this thread, the linecard is basically very similar to a splitter cable. In a way, it is a splitter cable. And should be threated in a similar way. As a phy. Not as a device. Cables are replaceble without netdevice reappearing. This linecards are the same. Therefore, the concept of provisioning makes sense for them, as it does for splitter cable. >exactly what was plugged in to a slot so the control plane S/W can >respond accordingly. Surely there is a way for processes on the LC to >communicate with a process on the management card - even if it is inband >packets with special headers. If a device is capable of splitter cable/linecard hotplug, sure, that may be implemented. But the user has to configure it as such, to be aware that "cable change" may move netdevices around.
