[ipxe-devel] Request for Network support for HP Elitebook 745 G3 (Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Plus)

Wed Feb 3 20:11:21 UTC 2016

Ok so you use the ipxe variant, which will indeed be buggy in some
circumstances if build with kpxe or kkpxe
Simply don't use ipxe.kkpxe or ipxe.kpxe , Can't stress this enugh
since it makes no sense at all to keep the old UNDI or PXE stack
available when having native support.
Use ipxe.pxe, or ipxe.lkrn
it is quite unnecessary to build everything so you would save quite
som buildtime if you add the specific target you want.

This (ipxe.*) will only support the drivers built into ipxe, what is
the ipxe output when running this build?

undionly.kpxe (using the UNDI stack, NOT PXE stack) however should
support all nics, but maybe not with native speed.

To test this you should add a _temporary_ menu item to your pxelinux
menu or as explained earlier build a .usb version that you test from a
usb stick, see previous links.

Just to be clear, what I'm suggesting might not, and in some cases
should not be the final solution, but should be done to figure out
what the final solution is.
If you don't have a system where you can test this (for example can
only test in production) then I highly suggest you start with a test
system for any future issues. (the USB version can be used as a
minimal test system)

On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 8:59 PM, Krizak, Paul <pkrizak at qualcomm.com> wrote:
> The build process we use is, (from src dir)
>
> 1. make
> 2. Edit /tmp/menu.ipxe.  Example:
>
> #!ipxe
> set use-cached 1
> dhcp net0
> kernel http://sdimg01.qualcomm.com/osd/wimboot
> initrd http://sdimg01.qualcomm.com/osd/sccmfiles/BOOTMGR.EXE  BOOTMGR.EXE
> initrd http://sdimg01.qualcomm.com/osd/sccmfiles/BCD      BCD
> initrd http://sdimg01.qualcomm.com/osd/sccmfiles/BOOT.SDI BOOT.SDI
> initrd http://sdimg01.qualcomm.com/osd/sccmfiles/BOOT.WIM BOOT.WIM
> boot
>
> 3. make bin/ipxe.kkpxe EMBED=/tmp/menu.ipxe
> 4. cp bin/ipxe.kkpxe /path/to/tftp/root/ipxe-sdimg01.kkpxe
>
> The pxelinux menu entry looks like this:
>
> LABEL Windows Imaging sdimg01
>   MENU LABEL Windows Imaging - sdimg01
>   PXE targets/windows/ipxe/ipxe-sdimg01.kkpxe
>
> I followed this same process after editing tg3.c.  The first "make" did indeed rebuild the ipxe core due to tg3.c being updated.  The kkpxe build also rebuilt embedded.c and generated a new ipxe.kkpxe binary.  However, this new binary still does not appear to recognize the NIC.
>
> We can try the UNDI-only build, but we'll have to go back and re-qualify a boatload of hardware that currently works fine with the kkpxe solution.  It would be a lot easier for us if we could get kkpxe to work.
>
> ----
> Paul Krizak              office: AF-250D
> Staff IT Engineer, UCM   desk: 858-651-2467
> Qualcomm, Inc            cell: 512-791-0686
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christian Nilsson [mailto:nikize at gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2016 11:49 AM
> To: Krizak, Paul
> Cc: Doose, Michael; ipxe-devel at lists.ipxe.org
> Subject: Re: [ipxe-devel] Request for Network support for HP Elitebook 745 G3 (Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Plus)
>
> On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 8:34 PM, Krizak, Paul <pkrizak at qualcomm.com> wrote:
>> I am fairly certain I'm using the latest version:
>>
>> --- /usr2/pkrizak/git/ipxe
>> [pkrizak at melchior]$ git remote -v show
>> origin  git://git.ipxe.org/ipxe.git (fetch)
>> origin  git://git.ipxe.org/ipxe.git (push)
>>
>> --- /usr2/pkrizak/git/ipxe
>> [pkrizak at melchior]$ git pull
>> Already up-to-date.
>>
>> --- /usr2/pkrizak/git/ipxe
>> [pkrizak at melchior]$ git rev-parse HEAD
>> d0bfd830e4e5ddd1015dda66833a99b068b6a519
>
> Yes that's the latest one, goodie ;)
>
>>
>> If you're referring to the build number in some of the screenshots earlier in this thread -- you're right, that was the older build.  We actually did build with the newer version and got the same results (but did not post newer screencaps that show the newer build version).
>>
>>>> Why kkpxe?
>>
>> We have a standard infrastructure based on pxelinux, so we are chain-loading iPXE specifically for Windows installs.  Linux and ESX installs go through our standard pxelinux stuff.  But it all has to live on the same network, so pxelinux is the "primary" bootloader.
>>
>> I did not develop the ipxe setup for Windows -- it was handed to me in this state.  I don't know why we use kkpxe versus other types of bootloaders, except for "that's how it was set up".  Is there a better way to get HTTP-based image downloads to work without needing kkpxe?
>
>
> Ok yes, use undionly.kpxe (single k) that should work for all nics
> that are chained (unless The underlaying UNDI implementation is buggy)
>
> Having pxelinux in the boot path is sometimes causing an issue so you
> should try without it, for example by building the .usb version
> instead and booting directly from a usb stick.
>
> http://forum.ipxe.org/showthread.php?tid=6989
> I'm guessing here, but kkpxe might actually be part of your issue.
>
>
>>
>> The key feature of ipxe that we're taking advantage of is its ability to use HTTP to retrieve a disk image, rather than TFTP.  With Windows installs, we have to download a multi-hundred-MB image, which takes FOREVER over TFTP. Over HTTP it is much faster and more reliable (since it uses TCP instead of UDP).
>>
>>>> I'm quite sure I have added that to a build myself.
>>
>> Maybe it's still sitting in a feature branch and needs to be merged to master?  It's definitely not in the code at the master branch.
>
>
> It was a one time build and was never sent upstream. (I'm just a iPXE
> user like yourself)
>
>
>>
>> I edited tg3.c and added the PCI_ROM macro, then recompiled.  Same behavior as before.  And I double-checked the build number, and it's the newest one (d0bf...)
>>
>>
>
>
> What did you build? please try: make bin/14e41687.pxe DEBUG=tg3
> Or if you chain from pxelinux you might want make bin/14e41687.lkrn
> DEBUG=tg3 instead
>
> undionly versions will never include specific nic versions, so it
> won't make any difference.
>
>
>
>
>> ----
>> Paul Krizak              office: AF-250D
>> Staff IT Engineer, UCM   desk: 858-651-2467
>> Qualcomm, Inc            cell: 512-791-0686
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Christian Nilsson [mailto:nikize at gmail.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2016 11:07 AM
>> To: Doose, Michael; Krizak, Paul
>> Cc: ipxe-devel at lists.ipxe.org
>> Subject: Re: [ipxe-devel] Request for Network support for HP Elitebook 745 G3 (Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Plus)
>>
>>  Hi,
>> Sorry about 14e4-1687 not being included, let me return to that further down...
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 10:07 PM, Doose, Michael <mdoose at qualcomm.com> wrote:
>>> Christian,
>>>
>>> Thanks so much for the response, I apologize for not better explaining our situation. I hope the information below helps make things more clear. I work on the Windows side and have a Unix engineer helping with the updates on the pxe/ipxe side.
>>>
>>> We are now using iPXE 1.0.0+ (8f01). I have reached out to have the unit folks check the niclist.pl for the Broadcom NIC.
>>
>> That is very old!
>> commit 8f0173b5c8ac6de9e9fa8115e37357c2aeb88101
>> Date:   Mon Dec 9 15:32:42 2013 +0000
>>
>> Please use latest git master, cloning from
>> https://git.ipxe.org/ipxe.git is recommended
>>
>>>
>>> The error warning received was the following which referenced Legacy: "iPXE initializing devices...WARNING: Using legacy NIC wrapper on 00:00:00:00:00:00"
>>>
>>> On all our other systems we see: "iPXE initializing devices...ok"
>>>
>>> We are using .kkpxe with WIMBOOT and BOOTMGR.EXE, no EFI stuff. We are also chain loading from SYSLINUX PXE to iPXE
>>
>> Why kkpxe?, and what's your boot path/steps up to the above "Using
>> legacy NIC wrapper" message?
>> For example is it loaded from USB or is pxelinux involved somewhere etc.
>> Are you using ipxe.* or undionly.*
>> if you use undionly.kpxe (note not kkpxe) then ipxe will use the
>> BIOS/Firmware drivers, you could in that case try to upgrade BIOS.
>> if you use ipxe.pxe (don't use kpxe when using this variant) then it
>> will only use ipxes native drivers, since none exist that won't work,
>> but it shouldn't try to detect a non existing nic.
>> Or build bin/14e41687.pxe (see below for info about adding support)
>> Another alternative would be to test with .usb version on a USB stick:
>> http://ipxe.org/download#using_a_boot_cd-rom_or_usb_key
>>
>>
>>>
>>> In BIOS we have configured legacy mode:
>>> Configure Legacy Support and Secure boot : "Legacy Support Enable and Secure Boot Disable"
>>>
>>> -Mike
>>
>> Now about The missing 14e4-1687, I'm quite sure I have added that to a
>> build myself.
>> You could try to add it to tg3.c and see if it works
>>
>> PCI_ROM(0x14e4, 0x1687, "14e4-1687", "14e4-1687", 0),
>> or patch at: http://ur1.ca/oh6r6
>>
>> If it does not work then build with debugging enabled and see if that
>> gives anything:
>> make bin/14e41687.pxe DEBUG=tg3
>> This will enable the DBG statements in the tg3.c file
>> for even more debug output use DEBUG=tg3,tg3_hw,tg3_phy
>>
>> If it works, it would be appriciated if you could run thru the
>> testlist at http://ipxe.org/dev/driver
>> If everything passes then we can add it to the main repo (it will
>> probably be added if it works to boot with since it's better then
>> nothing, but the more tested the better)
>>
>> /Christian
>>
>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Christian Nilsson [mailto:nikize at gmail.com]
>>> Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2016 11:17 AM
>>> To: Doose, Michael <mdoose at qualcomm.com>
>>> Cc: ipxe-devel at lists.ipxe.org
>>> Subject: Re: [ipxe-devel] Request for Network support for HP Elitebook 745 G3 (Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Plus)
>>>
>>> On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 7:48 PM, Doose, Michael <mdoose at qualcomm.com> wrote:
>>>> Hey team,
>>>>
>>>> I pulled down the latest build this morning to try and add support for
>>>> the new HP Elitebook 745 G3 (AMD) based notebook, but it is still
>>>> defaulting to the Legacy and failing with all zeroes as the Mac Address.
>>>>
>>>> This unit runs a “Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Plus” LAN
>>>> Adapter. Is there anything you can suggest to try and add support for this unit?
>>>>
>>>> Thank you!
>>>>
>>>> Misc Hardware Info:
>>>>
>>>> Hardware IDs:
>>>> PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_1687
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> The 14e4-1687 have native supported in ipxe and should work, the first thing to check in cases like this is the niclist that can be generated by niclist.pl in the util directory.
>>>
>>> What do you mean by Legacy? Assuming you are using the latest git master, what are your build command and which ipxe file are you using?
>>> legacy might mean undionly.kpxe which do not have any native drivers in it. you need ipxe.pxe or ipxe.efi depending on platform, you could also build 14e41687.pxe/.efi to only support the specific nic.
>>>
>>> Your issues might also be related to buggy HP firmware:
>>> http://lists.ipxe.org/pipermail/ipxe-devel/2015-November/004476.html
>>>
>>> Hope it helps, otherwise you can follow some of the steps described in the above email thread and see if that gets you any further.
>>>
>>> /Christian