[gPXE] Intel NIC Link-state problem

[Thomas Miletich]

Hello Christopher,
thanks for testing.

I have pushed a patch that removes the link state checking code from
eepro100 to staging[1].
Please let us know if this patch works for you. I will give it a shot
on my cards too, as soon as I can.

You can find prebuilt binaries at [2].

Thanks
Thomas

[1] http://git.etherboot.org/?p=gpxe-staging.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/meteger-89-eepro100
[2] http://etherboot.org/share/meteger/eepro100/

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 4:00 PM, Christopher Armenio
<Christopher.Armenio at resquared.com> wrote:
> Marty,
> I forgot to post this yesterday...
>
> I fumbled around with some of the link checking code on my own and wound up
> removing the
> link state check. I compiled it and everything worked like a charm...here is
> my simple change:
>
> --- eepro100.c    2010-04-16 09:56:56.753307333 -0400
> +++ /home/arsinio/Desktop/eepro100.c    2010-04-16 07:55:15.000000000 -0400
> @@ -586,8 +586,7 @@
>      /* Check to see if network cable is plugged in. */
>      if ( ! ( ifec_mdio_read ( netdev, mdio_register & 0x1f, 1 )
>            & ( 1 << 2 ) ) ) {
> -//        return 0;
> -        return 1;
> +        return 0;
>      }
>      return 1;
>  }
>
> Let me know if you still want me to try your change. I'm not sure what
> direction everyone
> would like to take this development, be it removing link state checking, or
> fixing the link
> state checking problem. Either way, I'm more than willing to help with
> finding a
> permanent solution.
>
> Thanks!
> -Chris
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 8:26 AM, Marty Connor <mdc at etherboot.org> wrote:
>>
>> Christopher Armenio wrote on 4/13/10 6:17 PM:
>> > Hi there,
>> > I seem to be having a problem getting gPXE to correctly interact with my
>> > intel NIC (integrated intel eepro100). I believe gPXE is incorrectly
>> > reporting the link as being down. There are both link and activity
>> > lights on
>> > the physical interface, and I can see the RX counter incrementing using
>> > the
>> > 'ifstat' command.
>> >
>> > Any thoughts/suggestions?
>> > Thanks!
>> > -Chris
>>
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> If you are able to compile gPXE, could you make the following change and
>> recompile:
>>
>> --- a/src/drivers/net/eepro100.c
>> +++ b/src/drivers/net/eepro100.c
>> @@ -600,6 +600,9 @@ static void ifec_link_update ( struct net_device
>> *netdev )
>>  {
>>        DBGP ( "ifec_link_update\n" );
>>
>> +       netdev_link_up ( netdev );
>> +       return;
>> +
>>        /* Update link state */
>>        if ( ifec_link_check ( netdev ) )
>>                netdev_link_up ( netdev );
>>
>>
>> -----------
>>
>> What this does is to assert that the link state is "up".  I notice that
>> most of our drivers don't do elaborate link state checking, but
>> eepro100 does, and it appears that the card is reporting a value during
>> that
>> check that says the link is down, even if it is up.
>>
>> Since there's really nothing we can do if the link isn't up, I think the
>> check is probably not needed.
>>
>> The patch above simply short-circuits the check for link, and always
>> indicates
>> to the core that link is up.
>>
>> If this patch works, we can just remove the extra link_state checking
>> logic
>> from src/drivers/net/eepro100.c, since other drivers don't do it, and it
>> seems
>> to cause a problem for some eepro100 cards.
>>
>> If editing and compiling this is a problem for you, I or someone else
>> would
>> be more than happy to make a test image for you.
>>
>> Thanks again for your help debugging this!
>>
>> / Marty /
>>
>>
>
>
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