Weird Issue with Broadcom NetXtremeII

Tzuriel · Apprentice Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 260

Just a note in case you need similiar hardware comparisons, I run a Dell 6850 (x86_64) as master with a bunch of 1950 and all works well w/ ether.

lebarjack · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:33 pm Post subject:

I had several strange issues with the broadcom netxtreme.
And the weirdness increased when I installed a xen kernel.
The firmware of these NIC seems to be bugged.

See here for a workaround:
http://mywiki.ncsa.uiuc.edu/wiki/Dell_PE1950_NIC_Firmware_Workaround

Hope it helps

darren1234 · Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 9:09 am Post subject:

I was really hoping to find a resolution. I just picked up a Dell 1950 and am fighting the dual Broadcom NetXtreme II.

eth0 has only come up once, then it died shortly afterwards.
eth1 has come up, but only after repeated start/stops.

ethtool shows the speed is unknown, as shown in previous posts.

I tried the Dell tool from dos mentioned in this thread, but that did not make any difference. I am currently running version 1.8 firmware according to that dos utility.

Has anyone else succeeded?

<update>
Btw - I am running the 32 bit version of 2.6.18-r3, not the 64 bit version
</update>

aZZe · Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 2:16 pm Post subject:

I have patched a DELL PE2950 with the latest BIOS update 1.2.0. We have also two Intel Dual Port Cards configured in this server. They work pretty fine. But Broadcom cards don't work at all. I used compiled-in drivers and also modules but no success! They strange thing is with the Gentoo Live CD it works (amd64 2006.1). So where are the differneces between the Live CD and my native system? I did a lsmod after the Live CD has finished booting and the only network modules that was loaded was bnx2. So did anyone have some success or an idea what the LiveCD is loading to get the Broadcom Cards work?
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darren1234 · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 8:27 pm Post subject:

aZZe · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:55 am Post subject:

Grrr....I hate DELL!!! Is it a jumper or something? Is it hard to find?
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ATI Radeon HD4870

aZZe · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 12:30 pm Post subject:

Hmmm... I guess it wouldn't be only a DELL Problem. All other hardware manufactures like HP or IBM use the the Broadcom Cards including TOE. So question will be:"When will TOE Support be implemented in Linux?" I mean it is pretty nice that CPU doesn't need to share power for the NIC anymore. Does anyone know some news about TOE and Linux support?
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ASUS 4A785TD-V EVO with AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965
4GB RAM DDR3-1333
ATI Radeon HD4870

darren1234 · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 3:41 am Post subject:

aZZe · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:12 am Post subject:

Yeah I fixed my problem! I disconnected the TOE adapter on the mainboard and everything is running fine right now. A description where to find the adapter is located here.
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ASUS 4A785TD-V EVO with AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965
4GB RAM DDR3-1333
ATI Radeon HD4870

honeymak · Guru Joined: 30 Dec 2002 Posts: 596

actually when i chose the RHEL 5 on the list with this option,
then that web page told me has to DISABLE toe stuff.....that means....i should buy something with linux inside with TOE
so the last guy did right
:oops:

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grimm26 · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:16 pm Post subject:

aZZe · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 6:41 am Post subject:

Don't ask me.

I don't really know.......I disabled TOE on all machines right now and it works fine.
_________________
ASUS 4A785TD-V EVO with AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965
4GB RAM DDR3-1333
ATI Radeon HD4870

grimm26 · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 2:51 pm Post subject:

Actually, I solved this issue for myself on my 2950 by using eth1 instead of eth0. I don't know if this is a fluke, but eth1 comes up fine, eth0 doesn't. When booted from the livecd, they seem to be detected in reverse because eth0 comes up fine and eth1 won't. Maybe only one of the NICs uses the TOE or something?
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aZZe · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:55 am Post subject:

No. The problem is DELL made a mistake with the description of the NICs. Eth0 is Eth1 and Eth1 is Eth0. You have the same problem with Windows but there you can change the network cards so that it fits again. The main Problem with Linux is TOE cause it's not supported. Either you disable it in the BIOS settings or disconnect the switch on the mainboard. It installed several PE2950 in our company with Gentoo right now and it works very well. If could find a solution to get Dell Server Administrator running it would be perfect.
_________________
ASUS 4A785TD-V EVO with AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965
4GB RAM DDR3-1333
ATI Radeon HD4870

kielo · n00b Joined: 03 Feb 2011 Posts: 1

I can see this is an old thrad but I had the same issue with a Broadcom Card on HP ProLiant DL385 G6.

After all, I compiled the kernel with bnx2 as a module and not built in.
Additionally, I noticed that when I plugged the cable in on phsycial port 1 (which mostly would be eth0), it was seen as eth2.