Intel network interface with Solaris 10 x86
Hi,
I have been Googling all evening to try and find a solution to this, but here is the problem:
I have a PC built around an Asus P4C800-E system board, and I have Solaris 10 x86 01/2006 installed. I would like to get the Ethernet interface (Intel adaptor, running on a CSA bus) up and running - but for some reason I can't seem to get the driver to bind to the proper address (pci8086,1019 - from what I have been able to find out): It instead insists on binding to pci1043,80f7. Even though pci8086,1019 is listed in /etc/device_aliases, it won't play nice.
I know the NIC is working, and have tried it under other OSes (including Linux).
Although Solaris x86 "sees" something there, and the interface is plumbed (it can even tell when the network link is up or down), I can't get the interface to work - pings do not work, etc.
Is there a way I can convince the driver to bind to pci8086,1019 instead of pci1043,80f7?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Joovilhar.
[1046 byte] By [
Joovilhar] at [2007-11-25 22:58:41]
# 1
<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>Joovilhar wrote on Wed, 08 March 2006 02:14</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
I can't seem to get the driver to bind to the proper address (pci8086,1019 - from what I have been able to find out): It instead insists on binding to pci1043,80f7. Even though pci8086,1019 is listed in /etc/device_aliases, it won't play nice.
</td></tr></table>
Is 1043,80f7 the device's pci subsystem vendor and subsystem device id?
And 8086,1019 is the normal vendor/device id?
In this case everything would work as expected.
What is listed by "/usr/X11/bin/scanpci -v" for the ethernet controller?
<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>Quote:</b></td></tr><tr>& lt;td class="quote">
I know the NIC is working, and have tried it under other OSes (including Linux).
Although Solaris x86 "sees" something there, and the interface is plumbed (it can even tell when the network link is up or down), I can't get the interface to work - pings do not work, etc.
</td></tr></table>
Try to boot the kernel with various settings of the "acpi-user-options" variable,
to disable / enable ACPI. In previous Solaris x86 releases, when
something went wrong configuring an interrupt vector for a nic device,
the typical end result is a nic that is unable to receive incomming
packets. Maybe your Asus P4C800-E is still problematic with ACPI, with
S10 x86 1/2006, and needs the acpi-user-options workaround.
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/danasblog?anchor=configuring_solaris_acp i_at_boot" target="_blank"> http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/danasblog?anchor=configurin g_solaris_acpi_at_boot</a>
To change the "acpi-user-options" variable, edit the grub boot command
line and edit the "multiboot" line, e.g. append "-Bacpi-user-options=0x2".
jkeil at 2007-7-5 17:14:01 >
# 2
Hi J.Keil,
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried turning off ACPI as you suggested, but that didn't make any difference.
I got it working by trawling the Intel Web site and downloading a driver for Solaris 8/9, published in 2004. One reconfiguration boot later, and my net access was working. I am somewhat bothered by the fact that there is no driver for Solaris 10 (even though installing the 8/9 driver worked) - and by the fact that a Solaris release in 2006 doesn't yet contain a working driver for something as crucial as a NIC (especially one as popular as the Intel CSA-based GbE) - especially when the code has been available since 2004.
Incidentally, when booting the machine, the console reports that pci8086,1019 is used - yet when I looked again with `prtconf -D`, it still reported pci1043,80f7!
Since there is no entry in the HCL for this adaptor, I'll fill it in - especially for those poor souls who see e1000g0 up but not doing what it is supposed to. :)
Kindest regards,
Joovilhar.
# 3
Hmm, I guess this is bug 6350407,
Synopsis: e1000 card in Gateway E2300 does not actually send packets in S10U1
<a href="http://bugs.opensolaris.org/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6350407" target="_blank"> http://bugs.opensolaris.org/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6 350407</a>
There are some hints that adding
MSIEnable=0
to the /kernel/drv/e1000g.conf file and rebooting is a workaround.
<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solarisx86/message/33887" target="_blank">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solarisx86/message/33887</a >
jkeil at 2007-7-5 17:14:01 >
# 4
Thanks! (Thanks especially for the bug reference!)
Will give that a go (will re-install everything). I'll also re-install when 4/2006 comes out - I'm hoping there will be an update in April, too.
Right now, I'm memtest86+'ing the machine, to make sure everything is as it should be. Before I start doing anything serious with the hardware, I want to ensure it is behaving as advertised. :)
When that's done (and I've come back from CeBIT this Saturday!), I'll try re-installing Solaris and trying my luck with the network interface again.
# 5
It seems that the current opensolaris source release contains a fix for
bug 6350407 (as a closed source binary driver module, though):
<a href="http://dlc.sun.com/osol/on/downloads/current/on-changelog-20060307.html" target="_blank"> http://dlc.sun.com/osol/on/downloads/current/on-changelog-20 060307.html</a>
That is, Solaris Express releases using Solaris Nevada build 36 or newer
might work better with your NIC.
jkeil at 2007-7-5 17:14:01 >
