[PATCH v3 0/9] Phy, mdiobus, and netdev struct device fixes

[David Miller]

From: Andrew Lunn <andrew at lunn.ch>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2015 00:26:54 +0200

> On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 03:15:54PM -0700, David Miller wrote:
>> From: Andrew Lunn <andrew at lunn.ch>
>> Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 23:57:31 +0200
>> 
>> > I built the FEC driver as a module, and it won't unload:
>> > 
>> >  kernel:unregister_netdevice: waiting for eth1 to become free. Usage count = 1
>> > unregister_netdevice: waiting for eth1 to become free. Usage count = 1
>> > 
>> > i assume because DSA holds a reference. I've not tried a fully module
>> > build, DSA has issues with that.
>> > 
>> > Tested-by: Andrew Lunn <andrew at lunn.ch>
>> 
>> So, is this a regression?
> 
> Sorry, worded that badly. Since DSA is still active, it should not be
> possible to unload the FEC driver. DSA should have a reference to it,
> and mdio-mux also should have a reference to the mdio bus of the FEC
> driver.
> 
> As Russell requested, i will re-test without his patches, just to make
> sure.

Something needs to hold into the underlying device refcount of a DSA
blob so that an unload can't even be attempted in that state.