Supporting platforms with no EEPROM?
Guys:
I'm working on a Thecus N4100 platform, which has two e1000's but no EEPROMs.
The MAC addresses are set by the bootloader, using values that are stored in the
platform's equivalent of a BIOS (flash memory).
The platform boots into Linux, currently 2.6.27-rc5. It's an ARM instruction
set architecture machine.
When the platform boots, the kernel (not surprisingly) reports as follows:
...
Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - version 7.3.20-k3-NAPI
Copyright (c) 1999-2006 Intel Corporation.
e1000: 0000:00:01.0: e1000_probe: The EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid
/*********************/
Current EEPROM Checksum : 0xffff
Calculated : 0xbaf9
Offset Values
======== ======
00000000: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000010: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000020: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000030: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000040: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000050: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000060: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000070: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
Include this output when contacting your support provider.
This is not a software error! Something bad happened to your hardware or
EEPROM image. Ignoring this problem could result in further problems,
possibly loss of data, corruption or system hangs!
The MAC Address will be reset to 00:00:00:00:00:00, which is invalid
and requires you to set the proper MAC address manually before continuing
to enable this network device.
Please inspect the EEPROM dump and report the issue to your hardware vendor
or Intel Customer Support.
/*********************/
e1000: 0000:00:01.0: e1000_probe: Invalid MAC Address
e1000: 0000:00:01.0: e1000_probe: (PCI:33MHz:32-bit) 00:00:00:00:00:00
e1000: eth0: e1000_probe: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection
e1000: 0000:00:02.0: e1000_probe: The EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid
/*********************/
Current EEPROM Checksum : 0xffff
Calculated : 0xbaf9
Offset Values
======== ======
00000000: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000010: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000020: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000030: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000040: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000050: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000060: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
00000070: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
Include this output when contacting your support provider.
This is not a software error! Something bad happened to your hardware or
EEPROM image. Ignoring this problem could result in further problems,
possibly loss of data, corruption or system hangs!
The MAC Address will be reset to 00:00:00:00:00:00, which is invalid
and requires you to set the proper MAC address manually before continuing
to enable this network device.
Please inspect the EEPROM dump and report the issue to your hardware vendor
or Intel Customer Support.
/*********************/
e1000: 0000:00:02.0: e1000_probe: Invalid MAC Address
e1000: 0000:00:02.0: e1000_probe: (PCI:33MHz:32-bit) 00:00:00:00:00:00
e1000: eth1: e1000_probe: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection
e100: Intel(R) PRO/100 Network Driver, 3.5.23-k4-NAPI
e100: Copyright(c) 1999-2006 Intel Corporation
...
To date, the only way I've seen around this is to just hack out the code in the
e1000 driver that deals with the EEPROM and MAC addresses. Is there any plan
for cleanly handling no-EEPROM platforms, or am I into "undiscovered territory"
here? I'm willing to submit patches once I find a minimally-invasive and robust
solution, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel...
(Crossposted to debian-arm, since it's an ARM platform and I've already raised
the issue there).
Thanks!
b.g.
--
Bill Gatliff
bgat@billgatliff.com
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