[ipxe-devel] Running into problems with Broadcom NICs (14e4-1681 and 14e4-1687)

[Jeremy Mlazovsky]

I am running into some problem with using iPXE on an HP 705 G1 desktop and
an HP 6305 desktop and was hoping someone could point me in the right
direction.  I talked to a few people on IRC #ipxe and they suggested I post
here.

Our HP 6305 uses a "Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Plus".  Its PCI ID
is 14e4-1681.  The current source for iPXE includes the PCI ID in its
database.  iPXE is able to see the NIC and report the MAC address.
However, it fails when trying to run "dhcp".

Our HP 705 G1 uses a "Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Plus".  Its PCI
ID is 14e4-1687.  The current source for iPXE does not include this PCI ID
in its database and as configured does not provide networking of any kind.
If I go into drivers/net/tg3/tg3.c and add the following line of code and
recompile iPXE then iPXE is able to see the NIC and report the MAC
address.  However, it fails when trying to run "dhcp".
PCI_ROM(0x14e4, 0x1687, "14e4-1687", "14e4-1687", 0),


I tried following the steps on the iPXE site for testing network drivers as
requested.  Here are the results of the tests on the HP 705 G1.  For all of
my tests I am booting off of a USB flash drive running iPXE.  iPXE had been
compiled today using the current code source on git.  I hit Control-B to
get to the command line and run these commands.


iPXE> ifstat net0
net0: 8c:dc:d4:2f:59:f6 using 14e4-1687 on PCI03:00.0 (closed)
  [Link:down, TX:0, TXE:0, RX:0, RXE:0]
  [Link status: Unknown (http://ipxe.org/1a086101)]

iPXE> ifstat net0
net0: 8c:dc:d4:2f:59:f6 using 14e4-1687 on PCI03:00.0 (closed)
  [Link:down, TX:0, TXE:0, RX:0, RXE:0]
  [Link status: Unknown (http://ipxe.org/1a086101)]

iPXE > ifopen net0

iPXE > ifopen net0
net0: 8c:dc:d4:2f:59:f6 using 14e4-1687 on PCI03:00.0 (open)
  [Link:up, TX:0, TXE:0, RX:0, RXE:0]

I then unplugged the network cable

iPXE> ifstat net0
net0: 8c:dc:d4:2f:59:f6 using 14e4-1687 on PCI03:00.0 (open)
  [Link:down, TX:0, TXE:0, RX:0, RXE:0]
  [Link status: Down (http://ipxe.org/38086101)]

I then plugged in the network cable.  I did not notice the link lights
doing anything

iPXE> ifstat net0
net0: 8c:dc:d4:2f:59:f6 using 14e4-1687 on PCI03:00.0 (open)
  [Link:up, TX:0, TXE:0, RX:0, RXE:0]

iPXE> dhcp net0
Configuring (net0 8c:dc:d4:2f:59:f6)...................... Error 0x040ee119
(http://ipxe.org/040ee119)

Link lights eventually turned on.  My coworker was trying to use wireshark
to see if he could see anything but he said he did not (though he was not
sure if he had it setup properly).

iPXE> ifstat net0
net0: 8c:dc:d4:2f:59:f6 using 14e4-1687 on PCI03:00.0 (closed)
  [Link:up, TX:4, TXE:0, RX:0, RXE:0]
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