netxen_nic firmware hang detected

[Marco Barbero <marco.barbero@gmail.com>]

Hi.
HP Proliant with a HP NC375T (qlogic chipset)
Debian Squeeze amd64

# lsmod -k

07:00.0 Ethernet controller: NetXen Incorporated NX3031 Multifunction
1/10-Gigabit Server Adapter (rev 42)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company NC375T PCI Express Quad
Port Gigabit Server Adapter
       Kernel driver in use: netxen_nic
07:00.1 Ethernet controller: NetXen Incorporated NX3031 Multifunction
1/10-Gigabit Server Adapter (rev 42)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company NC375T PCI Express Quad
Port Gigabit Server Adapter
       Kernel driver in use: netxen_nic
07:00.2 Ethernet controller: NetXen Incorporated NX3031 Multifunction
1/10-Gigabit Server Adapter (rev 42)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company NC375T PCI Express Quad
Port Gigabit Server Adapter
       Kernel driver in use: netxen_nic
07:00.3 Ethernet controller: NetXen Incorporated NX3031 Multifunction
1/10-Gigabit Server Adapter (rev 42)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company NC375T PCI Express Quad
Port Gigabit Server Adapter
       Kernel driver in use: netxen_nic


# ethtool -i eth4
driver: netxen_nic
version: 4.0.77
firmware-version: 4.0.579
bus-info: 0000:07:00.2


# dpkg -l |grep netxen
ii  firmware-netxen                     0.35~bpo60+1
    Binary firmware for QLogic Intelligent Ethernet (3000 and 3100
Series)

# uname -a
Linux firewall-slave 3.2.12 #1 SMP Wed Mar 21 17:33:10 CET 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux


I'm experiencing 'firmware hang detected' issue on this quad
sometime it recovers after some seconds
sometime a reboot is needed

I have noticed HP has releases a very new firmware      5.0.0 (4 Jun 2012)
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=4038765&prodNameId=4038767&swEnvOID=4004&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-9c4312ff7adb4e6482acf4c1f7

Looking at their docs they say:

Important Information
======================
1) The nx_nic driver uses host-based firmware load.  When the user loads the
driver the host-based firmware image in the driver will be the version that
is displayed when checking the firmware version using ethtool.  The burned-in
firmware on the device as well as the host-based firmware version can be
verified by checking dmesg for entries similiar to the following:
nx_nic: Flash Version: Firmware[4.0.516], BIOS[2.1.3]
nx_nic: File FW[nx3fwmn.bin] version[4.0.516:12818]


In short: do I need another host-based firmware image after flashing
new firmware from HP? I have checked logs but I cannot find any
entries about flash version, only info about host based firmware:
Jun 20 01:03:50 firewall-slave kernel: [    8.898253] netxen_nic
0000:07:00.0: loading firmware from phanfw.bin
Jun 20 01:03:50 firewall-slave kernel: [   10.621102] netxen_nic
0000:07:00.0: firmware v4.0.579 [legacy]
Jun 20 01:03:50 firewall-slave kernel: [   10.622516] netxen_nic
0000:07:00.1: firmware v4.0.579 [legacy]
Jun 20 01:03:50 firewall-slave kernel: [   10.623869] netxen_nic
0000:07:00.2: firmware v4.0.579 [legacy]
Jun 20 01:03:50 firewall-slave kernel: [   10.625266] netxen_nic
0000:07:00.3: firmware v4.0.579 [legacy]


And then (but this is a bit OT, still I try to ask since HP does not
support debian):
HP release the firmware in a file .scexe
This file contain a sh script and a tar.gz
When I run it I get:
gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file

sh -x reveals: tail -n +418 CP017666.scexe  gzip -cd
gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file

it looks like a bad tar.gz but according HP this file works on RedHat.
Striping sh part and then issuing 'file' I get:
gzip compressed data, was "scexe_tmp6975", from Unix, last modified:
Mon May 21 23:06:04 2012, max compression

issuing tar xvzf manually, gives always gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
Have you any clue about that?

thanks