[openib-general] [PATCH] Allow setting of NodeDescription

[Fab Tillier]

> From: Roland Dreier [mailto:rolandd at cisco.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 9:01 AM
> 
>     Jack> The resulting set of NodeDescription strings present in the
>     Jack> SM and SA could then be a race-dependent salad (depending on
>     Jack> the timing of QP0 entering RTS state, SM subnet sweep, and
>     Jack> resetting of the local NodeDescription string).
> 
> Yes, it's unfortunate.
> 
> But I don't see any way to handle the situation arising when booting
> over IB, where a system needs the SM to bring its port to active
> before it can boot, but where the system doesn't know its host name
> until after it boots.

What happens during the handoff from the boot environment to the OS?  Does the
HCA get disabled and then the mthca driver starts fresh?  Or does the mthca
driver inherit a device that is already fully initialized.  If it gets
re-initialized, don't the ports go down when the boot agent shuts down (and the
SM should get a GID out of service trap), followed by the ports going up when
mthca starts?  Or is the problem that the boot driver doesn't know when the
handoff is, and thus can't disable the device?

Thanks,

- Fab