[PATCH v2] ixgbe/base: Manual AN-37 for troublesome link partners for X550 SFI

[Thomas Monjalon]

18/05/2022 02:03, Zhang, Qi Z:
> From: Jeff Daly <jeffd at silicom-usa.com>
> > 
> > Some SFP link partners exhibit a disinclination to autonegotiate with X550
> > configured in SFI mode.  This patch enables a manual AN-37 restart to work
> > around the problem.
> 
> This fix for some specific hardware in base code,
> unfortunately  Intel DPDK team don't have the device
> and the knowledge to approve this,

That's why the work is collaborative.
You should get and trust knowledge from partners.
The only concerns of a maintainer should be:
	- good feature design
	- good code quality
	- no regression in known cases

> the base code is delivered by our kernel software team,
> I will suggest you can send this to the kernel community
> to get the right expert to review.

Which kind of expert do you imagine to review?
Intel team or Silicom people who are pushing these improvements?

There is another problem with asking Linux kernel change first:
the patch will land in GPL code, bringing difficulties to move
in BSD-licensed base code.

I suggest we make this process more flexible:
	1/ a contributor sends a patch for DPDK base code
	   with an explicit grant for backporting in any license.
	2/ Intel checks that there is no DPDK regression
	3/ patch is merged in DPDK
	4/ Intel merges it in the internal base code
	5/ Linux kernel team can backport the fix to Linux
	6/ Any other OS can backport the fix in its driver

Let's make the DPDK process open for everybody.