[LEDE-DEV] [PATCH] imx6: add DSA driver for MV88E6176 switch

[Tim Harvey]

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 8:39 AM, Felix Fietkau <nbd at nbd.name> wrote:
> On 2017-03-10 17:28, Tim Harvey wrote:
>> On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 7:49 AM, Rafał Miłecki <zajec5 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 10 March 2017 at 16:01, Tim Harvey <tharvey at gateworks.com> wrote:
>>>> The MV88E6176 switch is present on the GW16083 and the GW5904
>>>>
>>>> As of a5c32a1f1996f4f75504c4a9abd1c99eaa598df1 these drivers are to be
>>>> enabled static in per-target kernels.
>>>
>>> A standard kernel syntax may be preferred:
>>> commit a5c32a1f1996 ("kernel: remove switch driver kmod packages")
>>
>> I can update the commit log if the patch requires rework.
>>
>> honestly, I'm not all that happy about 'commit a5c32a1f1996 ("kernel:
>> remove switch driver kmod packages")' which removed selecting dsa
>> kernel modules because of perceived bloat but instead this puts bloat
>> into the static kernel of other imx6 boards that dont' have DSA. At
>> least before the modules were selectable.
> Keeping it modular is a bad trade-off, because it was adding bloat to
> non-imx6 platform kernel images where *no* board was using it. On many
> of these, bloat is a real factor, as opposed the tiny cosmetic issue
> that you're describing.
>
> I'm pretty sure that no imx6 board is space constrained enough that
> adding a few kilobytes to the kernel image actually matters in practice.
>

Perhaps I'm not understanding as I don't know what you mean by
'cosmetic' issue. Requiring DSA drivers be static in the imx6 kernel
means other imx6 boards like wandboard will have that code in their
kernel. Making them a configurable module means users have the choice
to add that module to their rootfs or leave it out. Is the issue that
by default the dsa modules were getting installed on systems without
dsa? In that case the 'board profile' (vs 'target') should have
enabled those and they should otherwise be defaulted off in
menuconfig.

Its not a big deal to me at all... like you say this is just a few KB
were talking about. It just seemed to me the bloat got shifted to
another place is all.

Tim