Linux Broadcom NetExtreeme driver kernel module -tg3.ko

[ianatkin]

Has anyone managed to get the latest broadcom driver for the NeteXtreems to compile? The code is meant to be fairly backward compatible, but I'm having problems compiling it against the 2.6.27.7 kernel.

Oddly can compile is against the 2.6.27.9 fine though..

Just in case I've buggered up my sources has anyone else tried compiling this? The driver source can be downloaded from,
http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/driver-sla.php?driver=570x-Linux

Kind Regards,
Ian./

[ianatkin]

panic over... was recompiling against the wrong source... now done. If it works, I'll fire it up here.

[ianatkin]

Testing seems good. I've made a download here,

http://www.symantec.com/connect/downloads/linpe-broadcom-drivers-ds69-sp34

[Migration User]

Hi Ian,

Any chance you could compile a .ko driver for the Intel 82577LM for the Dell Latitude E6410 and the Dell Precision M4500?  Pretty please? :D

[ianatkin]

sure thing. I'll see what I can do.

[ianatkin]

This should be available as soon as ohzone wakes up..... This driver is untested as I haven't got my hands on the new models yet, so let me know how it goes.http://www.symantec.com/connect/downloads/intel-gigabit-driver-e1000eko-linpe-ds69-sp3-sp4

[Migration User]

Ian, you're the best!  I'll let you know as soon as I can test it.

[Migration User]

I'm awake and it's available!

[Migration User]

Any ideas as to what I should check to see if the driver is even on the Linux image?

[ianatkin]

do an automation wait, and then take a look in /lib/modules/2.6.27.7/kernel/opt/bdc, and here you should find you e1000e.ko driver (and any others you've added manually).

Do a modinfo e1000e.ko | more on this, and confirm the verison is 1.1.19-NAPI, and lsmod will also confirm whether the  e1000e module has actually loaded. 

[ianatkin]

bhawver, have you had any problems with the E6410 and PXE boot? I've had to open a Dell support case as the TFTP side has terrible performance and often hangs when downloading the automation image....

All the other Dell machines we've got are fine on PXE off the same server. We applied the A01.1 patch, and also tried upgrading to A03... no help...

[Migration User]

I've been able to use PXE just fine on the new machines.  I've had to use WinPE for the E6410 and M4500's though due to the driver not being there for Linux.  I would prefer to go back to linux if possible because WinPE takes a bit longer to load and for the most part Linux loads much faster and has similar throughput in imaging to WinPE.

[ianatkin]

Damn -that means its something about our setup which these machines aren't liking....  I'll have another crack at the E6410 next tuesday and see if I can figure out what it is. I guess I can burn an iso while i'm at it to test out the NIC driver too. Will report back then.....

[ianatkin]

bhawver,

I've just been talking to one of our guys about the E6410 unit, and we created a USB flash disk with Linux automation, and this works out of the box for the SP4 automation environment. He didn't even require my recompiled Intel driver.

Are you using the latest automation frm for SP4? In Boot Disk Creator this is seen as version 6.9.9269

Kind Regards,
Ian./

[Migration User]

I'm still on 6.9 SP3, we're not ready to move to SP4 at this point.

[ianatkin]

Hi bhawver,

OK- i've got my model up and running and this driver does actually load on our E6410. The kernel versions for DS6.9SP3 and DS6.9SP4 are the same, so you shouldn't have an issue.

I've been asking around here the best way to troubleshoot, and the consensus here is to load up your Linux automation environment and do the following,

modprobe -l e1000e

This should list all the modules found with the name e1000e in the /lib/modules structure. There should be two drivers, one loaded in with bootdisk creator, and the native one included in the automation environment. You should therefore see following output,

/lib/modules/2.6.27.7/kernel/opt/bdc/e1000e.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27.7/kernel/drivers/net/e1000e/e1000e.ko

If you don't see the bdc variant here, something is wrong. Try the process of adding the driver again. Next, to see what driver was actually loaded at boot time type,

dmseg | grep "e1000e"

and this should give you the output as follows,

e1000e : Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - 1.1.19 -NAPI
e1000e: Copyright 1999 - 2010 Intel Coorporation
e1000e: 0000:00:19.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
e1000e: 0000:00:19.0: Setting latency timer to 64
e1000e: eth0 NIC link is up 100Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
e1000e: eth0 NIC link is up 100Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None

Here you should explicitly see that the 1.1.19 driver has been loaded.

What do you get at your end? If you see nothing at all, i.e. no Intel  drivers loaded as determined by lsmod,  what do you get if you try to explicitly load the module using insmod e1000e?

Kind Regards,
Ian./

[Migration User]

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the great troubleshooting steps!  I am travelling to Montreal, Canada this week and will be back in the office on Monday.  I will give it a go when I get back.  Thanks so much for your help!

-Brian

[Migration User]

Apparently, I'm still running an old kernel with my 6.9 SP3 installation.  Installed the other .KO driver and that seems to work nicely.  Thanks Ian, you're the best!