Re: [PATCH net-next] r8152; preserve device list format

[Greg KH]

On Thu, Jan 12, 2023 at 11:18:59AM +0100, Bjørn Mork wrote:
> Greg KH <greg@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > On Thu, Jan 12, 2023 at 11:01:00AM +0100, Bjørn Mork wrote:
> >> This is a partial revert of commit ec51fbd1b8a2 ("r8152:
> >> add USB device driver for config selection")
> >> 
> >> Keep a simplified version of the REALTEK_USB_DEVICE macro
> >> to avoid unnecessary reformatting of the device list. This
> >> makes new device ID additions apply cleanly across driver
> >> versions.
> >> 
> >> Fixes: ec51fbd1b8a2 ("r8152: add USB device driver for config selection")
> >> Signed-off-by: Bjørn Mork <bjorn@xxxxxxx>
> >> ---
> >> The patch in
> >> https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20230111133228.190801-1-andre.przywara@xxxxxxx/
> >> will apply cleanly on top of this.
> >> 
> >> This fix will also prevent a lot of stable backporting hassle.
> >
> > No need for this, just backport the original change to older kernels and
> > all will be fine.
> >
> > Don't live with stuff you don't want to because of stable kernels,
> > that's not how this whole process works at all :)
> 
> OK, thanks.  Will prepare a patch for stable instead then.
> 
> But I guess the original patch is unacceptable for stable as-is? It
> changes how Linux react to these devces, and includes a completely new
> USB device driver (i.e not interface driver).

That's up to you all.  We don't add new support for new hardware to
older kernels _UNLESS_ it's just a new device id.  Otherwise it's just
better to tell people to upgrade to the newer kernel.

If you split things up and added a whole new driver, then just leave it
alone, no need to backport anything, sorry, I didn't realize that.

greg k-h