[PATCH net v4 2/2] net: phy: mdio-i2c: defer RollBall bridge probe to PHY discovery

[Aleksander Jan Bajkowski]

Hi Jakub,

On 25/06/2026 17:23, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Jun 2026 23:44:19 +0200 Aleksander Jan Bajkowski wrote:
>>> For genuine RollBall modules (e.g. FLYPRO SFP-10GT-CS-30M with Aquantia
>>> AQR113C) the probe now runs after initialization is complete and
>>> correctly returns 0, so PHY detection proceeds normally.
>> The FLPRO SFP module still fails to detect the PHY. It is necessary to
>> increase `module_t_wait` to 20 seconds. Most likely, during this time
>> the module loads the PHY firmware from SPI memory or from the
>> microcontroller (rollball bridge) via MDIO. Same probably applies to
>> most SFP modules with a PHY that load firmware at start-up (AQR113,
>> RTL8261C etc.).
> Just to clarify is FLPRO a typo or a knock off ?
Typo on my comment FLPRO->FLYPRO :)
> Do you want something to be changed here or you're just flagging that
> more follow ups are needed if we want to cover more modules?
I don’t know how this should be fixed. I’m just sharing information.
Even with this patch, most Rollball modules still don’t work. This
patch at least fixes one bug. According to SFF-8472[1], we shouldn’t
communicate with the SFP module until 300ms have elapsed since the
module was inserted. The second problem still remains. 300ms is still
not enough for most Rollball modules. Unfortunately, we’d need to test
a quirk for each module to find out what delay is required. We need a
quirk similar to sfp_fixup_rollball_wait4s. But with a longer delay.
Should the fix be included in this series or follow up?

1. SFF-8472 Rev 12.5a. Table 8-7

Best regards,
Aleksander