Re: [PATCH 15/21] net: phylink: allow PHY-autonomous EEE without MAC LPI

On Sun, Aug 02, 2026 at 11:14:25PM -0600, James Hilliard wrote:
> Phylink treats a MAC which implements its LPI operations but advertises no
> LPI capability as incapable of EEE. It disables PHY EEE during attach and
> rejects ethtool EEE requests. The same problem occurs when the MAC supports
> LPI on another interface but not on the interface currently connected to
> the PHY. Both cases are incorrect when the attached PHY can generate LPI
> autonomously without help from the MAC.

What you are talking about is SmartEEE, or other such names. It is not
part of 802.3, so there is no agreed upon name for it.

You are correct, phylink does not support it. It also needs a lot of
thought and careful design, which is why it has not been implemented
yet. Please search back through the netdev archive and find the
discussion.

	Andrew