[ipxe-devel] link down

[Joakim Tjernlund]

On Thu, 1970-01-01 at 00:00 +0000, Christian Nilsson wrote:
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> 
> On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 9:06 AM, Joakim Tjernlund
> <Joakim.Tjernlund at infinera.com> wrote:
> > On Thu, 1970-01-01 at 00:00 +0000, Christian Nilsson wrote:
> > > 
> > > For reference that is this line in intel.c:
> > > PCI_ROM ( 0x8086, 0x15d8, "i219v-4", "I219-V (4)", INTEL_NO_PHY_RST ),
> > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > No config change needed, the reason to check the link leds is to see
> > > > > if the hardware is up, and it's just iPXE to fails. (and of course
> > > > 
> > > > The link LEDS are ON
> > > > if I pull and then insert the cable while in ipxe shell then the link LEDs
> > > > are ON again. Indicates to me that the link is working but ipxe.lkrn does not
> > > > se it.
> > > > 
> > > > > that the cable is connected but we understand it already is)
> > > > > One other thing is that switch ports with STP enabled some times can
> > > > > take to long to be properly up (but in those cases it is more common
> > > > > to get DHCP timeouts)
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > To build for efi you are using make bin-x86_64-efi/ipxe.efi
> > > > > To build for pcbios use make bin/ipxe.pxe
> > > > > These are just examples tho.
> > > > 
> > > > Yes, I gout them all built and ipxe.efi actually works
> > > > 
> > > > Jocke
> > > 
> > > So which build was it that didn't work? (or did you do something else
> > > differently, like booting OS and rebooting instead of starting from
> > > cold power on)
> > 
> > It is booting ipxe from grub2 using: linux16 boot/ipxe.lkrn that fails.
> > I also just noted that if I pull the cable, boot into IPXE (linux16 boot/ipxe.lkrn), insert
> > the cable, I get link OK but ifstat says:
> > TXE: 6 x Operation not supported http://ipxe.org/3c654003
> > 
> > > 
> > > Also worth checking in cases like this: what is the link speed that
> > > the switch sees, and is the switch gigabit capable?
> > 
> > I don't have access to the switch but it is a GBE switch.
> 
> So ipxe.lkrn is only usable in pcbios mode, so might be some different
> initialization. (efi firmware does some initialization on the NIC
> which is not done when booting in pcbios mode)

Should I use another module instead? I would like just one for both
EDI and BIOS boot. I figure that if the kernel can be used in both modes(EFI/BIOS)
it should be possible for ipxe too, somehow.

> 
> Don't have time to look at any documentation right now, but you could
> test to replace INTEL_NO_PHY_RST in the above line with just a 0 and
> see if that works differently.

I will give it a go.

> If you do make sure you also double check if it works in both efi and
> pcbios mode. (and if possible ensure link up works in max speed on
> both gig and fast ethernet switch)
> More likely tho some different flag is needed instead to get it to
> negotiate correctly from power of mode for these i219v-4 nics

Right, I guess the Linux kernel could aid here but I am not that familar with
the kernel to figure out this myself.

 Jocke