Bug#459546: linux-image-2.6.18-5-xen-686: bnx2 fails to work with xen bridging

[dann frazier <dannf@dannf.org>]

On Thu, Jan 10, 2008 at 05:22:49PM -0800, Michael Chan wrote:
> > Michael: Do you know (and can you share) what the changes were to the
> > fw in this changeset?
> >   http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=af3ee519c5d6bebbda9bf0ca3b81bc50b4dd2163
> > 
> 
> This is the actual firmware patch that fixed the problem:
> 
> http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=7510873d8659f4192cb5b3327f748e401d216399
> 
> Xen puts the networking device in promiscuous mode and programs the MAC
> address to fe:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff.  The network stack continues to use the
> factory programmed MAC address of the NIC.  This should normally be OK
> since we are in promiscuous mode and should be able to receive all
> packets.
> 
> There was however a flaw in the firmware when the NIC was configured
> like this with management firmware also running.  Management firmware
> also uses the same factory programmed MAC address.  In such a
> configuration, packets addressed to the NIC's factory address would be
> delivered to management firmware only but not to the Linux driver.  This
> was clearly a bug as promiscuous mode should include reception of all
> packets.  I think the firmware programmer did not foresee such a
> scenario and our test cases did not include something like this.
> 
> So the change in the firmware was to correct this bug.  It has been lab
> and field tested for over a year.

Thanks Michael.

-- 
dann frazier