Re: [PATCH v2 3/4] arm64: dts: marvell: cn9132-clearfog: fix multi-lane pci x2 and x4 ports

[Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>]

> >> The mvebu-comphy driver does not currently know how to pass correct
> >> lane-count to ATF while configuring the serdes lanes.
> > Why not just teach mvebu-comphy to pass the correct line-count? That
> > sounds like the proper fix, and that makes the kernel independent of
> > the bootloader.

> That would be a feature on the comphy driver, not a bug-fix backported
> to stable. The core goal was to fix bugs found in Debian 13.

It is not so simple.

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/stable-kernel-rules.html

  It must either fix a real bug that bothers people or just add a device ID

Crashing at boot would be a real bug that bothers people, not just a
new feature.

Lets see how big the patch is. If its 1000 lines of hard to understand
code, it will probably be rejected for stable. If its 100 lines or
less, it will likely be accepted.

It is also hard to argue the DT is wrong. It just describes the
hardware. I assume the description is actually correct? The issue is
the driver, not the description. Also, i assume this affects all
boards using this SoC? Removing the nodes in one board 'fixes' one
board. Fixing the driver fixes all boards...

    Andrew