[PATCH net-next v7 5/5] ARM: dts: qcom: ipq4019: Add description for the IPQESS Ethernet controller

[Vladimir Oltean]

On Fri, Nov 04, 2022 at 10:31:06AM -0400, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
> > diff --git a/arch/arm/boot/dts/qcom-ipq4019.dtsi b/arch/arm/boot/dts/qcom-ipq4019.dtsi
> > index b23591110bd2..5fa1af147df9 100644
> > --- a/arch/arm/boot/dts/qcom-ipq4019.dtsi
> > +++ b/arch/arm/boot/dts/qcom-ipq4019.dtsi
> > @@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ aliases {
> >  		spi1 = &blsp1_spi2;
> >  		i2c0 = &blsp1_i2c3;
> >  		i2c1 = &blsp1_i2c4;
> > +		ethernet0 = &gmac;
> 
> Hm, I have doubts about this one. Why alias is needed and why it is a
> property of a SoC? Not every board has Ethernet enabled, so this looks
> like board property.
> 
> I also wonder why do you need it at all?

In general, Ethernet aliases are needed so that the bootloader can fix
up the MAC address of each port's OF node with values it gets from the
U-Boot environment or an AT24 EEPROM or something like that.