Driver that works only when module is loaded late, not from loader.conf

I didn't see a reply but I think this might be be symptom of a larger
issue that we might have to fix for 6.0.

I found an Ethernet driver which works fine if you load it via kldload
in a running system but it does not work when loaded in loader.conf.

The bug is http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=kern/82497

Here's the cut'n'paste:
-----------------------


Release
    -current of today 
Environment

FreeBSD wings.cons.org 6.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 6.0-CURRENT #4: Tue Jun 21
16:37:57 EDT 2005
cracauer_at_wings.cons.org:/usr/src/sys/amd64/compile/WINGS64  amd64



Description

I recently got an AMD64 socket 754 board with Via K8T800, an Abit
K8V-Pro, which has a if_vge Gigabit Ethernet.

This works only when you load the module after the full machine is up.

If you put if_vge_load="YES" into loader.conf you get:

Jun 21 19:32:46 wings kernel: vge0: <VIA Networking Gigabit Ethernet>
port 0xb8\
00-0xb8ff mem 0xe3014000-0xe30140ff irq 22 at device 14.0 on pci0
Jun 21 19:32:46 wings kernel: vge0: MII read timed out
Jun 21 19:32:46 wings kernel: vge0: failed to start MII autopoll
Jun 21 19:32:46 wings kernel: vge0: MII without any phy!
Jun 21 19:32:46 wings kernel: device_attach: vge0 attach returned 6

If you don't load it from loader.conf it works fine.

I have mii compiled into the kernel.


How-To-Repeat

Put if_vge_load="YES" into loader.conf 

reboot.

You will not get an interface and you'll have the above message in
/var/log/messages.


Fix

You can work around it by loading the module later.

It is not clear to me what is going on here.  Since I have mii
statically compiled into the kernel it is not a case of just
forgetting to load a dependency.