e1000e driver bug makes some net-installations fail.

[Jon Ander Ortiz <jonbaine@gmail.com>]

Hi:

The e1000e driver of the debian intaller stable version (2.6.26.2), contains a bug that in net installations makes
net installs fail.

This bug is explaned here, basically the ethttool interface of the e1000e driver, returns "2" instead of "1" when the
driver is asked about the link and the interface has link.

In the d-i, the netfg questions the drivers via ethtool interface, and it fails beacause he is waiting for 1 instead of 2 as
the link up answer:

                    if (ethtool_lite (*ifaces) == 1) /* CONNECTED */ {
                        defiface = strdup(*ifaces);
                        interface_down(*ifaces);
                        break;
                    }

 So, the netfg does not detect the correct interface and falls in the first one, if this is not the interface used for
restoration, the choose-mirror fails because there is no link in the configured interface, and the installation fails.

The fix, can be done using a newer version of the installer, or patching the installer kernel with the fix, or providing
a patched version of the netfg to the remote systems.  This is a problem of a buggy driver, not of the d-i, but i think 
that it's interesting to make it public in this list, and more since many cards are being migrated from e1000 to e1000e driver
 (e.g. 82573L) and with a debian installer update the net installation fails.

BR:
Jon Ander Ortiz