[openib-general] Re: [openib-commits] r894 -gen2/branches/roland-merge/src/linux-kernel/infiniband/ulp/ipoib

[Yaron Haviv]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: openib-general-bounces at openib.org [mailto:openib-general-
> bounces at openib.org] On Behalf Of Roland Dreier
> Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 9:18 PM
> To: Tom Duffy
> Cc: openib-general at openib.org
> Subject: Re: [openib-general] Re: [openib-commits] r894 -
> gen2/branches/roland-merge/src/linux-kernel/infiniband/ulp/ipoib
> 
>     Tom> Doh.  You beat me to the punch.  I was working on the same
>     Tom> thing (although, I was trying to do it with a kthread).
> 
> Sorry dude...
> 
>     Tom> What do you think is the next step on the TODO that I could
>     Tom> start working on?  Don't want to step on your toes...
> 
> I think I've done all the straightforward work on IPoIB now.  We can
> try to figure out how to make it a "native" driver now (ie use the
> full 20 byte HW address instead of hashing down to 6 bytes, etc).  I
> had some inconclusive discussions on netdev at oss.sgi.com about this
> last week but I still don't know how to do it.
> 

Having a 20 byte HW address towards the upper stack may result in some
unexpected behavior with different networking tools such as sniffers,
etc' ,  a variety of DHCP servers and few other protocols that use the
hardware addresses. 

I suggest we don't rush to incorporate the 20 byte support and think of
more urgent matters, and in any case when we do get to it allow the user
to configure the IPoIB to work in the 6 byte mode, to enable
compatibility with those apps/protocols.

Yaron