> Netboot (legacy netboot, as opposed to DHCP) is on the way out. The 
 > little bit of code in genunix could easily be changed to use DLPI style 
 > 1, if the NICs all export DLPI style 1 nodes.

It's more complicated than that -- there are no nodes in /devices for the
DLPI style-1 and we're too early in boot to create them.  Further, again,
no DLPI consumers and no GLDv3 drivers need to be concerned with DLPI
styles anyway because it's handled by libdlpi and the GLDv3 framework.

 > > See previous discussion: if we update softmac to just be a shim (again,
 > > this was the original design), then supporting these legacy drivers seems
 > > very low-cost.  Further, if we have to continue to support DLPI for
 > > non-Ethernet (e.g., PPP) then what exactly does removing this simplify?
 > 
 > Eventually removing the complexity of softmac itself! At least for 
 > Ethernet. (softmac doesn't do *anything* for PPP or other non-Ethernet 
 > links.)

Again, if softmac is properly factored it is merely something we remove
when we no longer need it.  That's why we want to keep it as a separate
module and not weld it into mac.  Yes, sins have been committed there --
mostly after the initial integration of Clearview UV -- and they need to
be undone.

 > I'm deep in this code now... and I *do* see value in cleaning this stuff 
 > up, at some point.

I'd rather see effort be put into areas that are straining under the load
and affecting customers, like GLDv3 buffer management.

-- 
meem
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