IBM Virtual Ethernet device is listed as unknown

Issue

• The operational state of an IBM Virtual Ethernet device is listed as unknown in the sysfs interface (e.g. /sys/class/net/eth0/operstate), even if the device is operational and transmitting data. The reason for this is that there is no interface that exists in PAPR (Power Architecture Platform Reference [1]) to determine if a VIO device is operational. It is unknown that the device is operational until it is enabled on boot or by an administrator and begins transmitting and receiving data. Due to this design, we need to describe the operational state as unknown until the PAPR is extended to include
  this functionality.

[1] https://openpowerfoundation.org/?resource_lib=linux-on-power-architecture-platform-reference