When a PSE controller driver is built as a module, it may not be probed
yet when PHYs are registered on the MDIO bus. This causes
fwnode_find_pse_control() -> of_pse_control_get() to return
-EPROBE_DEFER, which currently propagates up and destroys the PHY
device.

Treat -EPROBE_DEFER as non-fatal, allowing the PHY to register
successfully with psec=NULL. The PSE control can be resolved lazily
when first needed.

Signed-off-by: Carlo Szelinsky <github@szelinsky.de>
---
 drivers/net/mdio/fwnode_mdio.c | 8 ++++++--
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/mdio/fwnode_mdio.c b/drivers/net/mdio/fwnode_mdio.c
index ba7091518265..2a03b3fc41e6 100644
--- a/drivers/net/mdio/fwnode_mdio.c
+++ b/drivers/net/mdio/fwnode_mdio.c
@@ -161,8 +161,12 @@ int fwnode_mdiobus_register_phy(struct mii_bus *bus,
 
 	psec = fwnode_find_pse_control(child, phy);
 	if (IS_ERR(psec)) {
-		rc = PTR_ERR(psec);
-		goto unregister_phy;
+		if (PTR_ERR(psec) == -EPROBE_DEFER) {
+			psec = NULL;
+		} else {
+			rc = PTR_ERR(psec);
+			goto unregister_phy;
+		}
 	}
 
 	phy->psec = psec;
-- 
2.43.0

On Sun, 29 Mar 2026 18:10:12 +0200
Carlo Szelinsky <github@szelinsky.de> wrote:

> When a PSE controller driver is built as a module, it may not be probed
> yet when PHYs are registered on the MDIO bus. This causes
> fwnode_find_pse_control() -> of_pse_control_get() to return
> -EPROBE_DEFER, which currently propagates up and destroys the PHY
> device.
> 
> Treat -EPROBE_DEFER as non-fatal, allowing the PHY to register
> successfully with psec=NULL. The PSE control can be resolved lazily
> when first needed.

I think you should move this patch last on the series because it changes the
probe behavior, and needs the other patches to work properly on the lazy resolve
case.

Acked-by: Kory Maincent <kory.maincent@bootlin.com>

Thank you!
-- 
Köry Maincent, Bootlin
Embedded Linux and kernel engineering
https://bootlin.com