Can someone help me understand why I need to remove my stale PCI device files from the tree if I want to properly get my device re-initialized after unplugging and reinserting?

For example, I turn on my system with my PCI device plugged in. All is fine. I unplug it, plug it back in, and rescan (echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/rescan) and end up in this state where my BAR0 is not set, and other things are not entirely correct.

But if I do a remove (echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/xxxx/xx.x/remove) of the port, it then properly re-initializes my device when I do a rescan.

Why does it not suffice to simply do a rescan? Does the rescan skip some step if it finds that the device is already in the PCI tree? It's not as if the rescan completely skips the device if I don't do a remove, it just doesn't do all of the initialization.

Please post your thread in only one forum. Posting a single thread in the most relevant forum will make it easier for members to help you and will keep the discussion in one place. This thread is being closed because it is a duplicate.