On 2025 Jul 23 (Wed) at 22:24:41 +0200 (+0200), Mark Kettenis wrote: :> Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2025 20:06:38 +0200 :> From: Peter Hessler <[email protected]> :> :> I just got a new-to-me server, and are trying out various parts of it. :> While I have zero intentions of using the bge(4) nic, it gives me this :> error when I give it commands. :> :> bge0: APE lock 0 request failed! request = 0x8400[0x1000], status = 0x8420[0x0001] :> bge0: APE lock 0 request failed! request = 0x8400[0x1000], status = 0x8420[0x0001] :> bge0: APE lock 0 request failed! request = 0x8400[0x1000], status = 0x8420[0x0001] :> bge0: APE lock 0 request failed! request = 0x8400[0x1000], status = 0x8420[0x0001] :> bge0: APE lock 0 request failed! request = 0x8400[0x1000], status = 0x8420[0x0001] : :The joys of Dell "value-add" firmware ;). : :To get a sense of what the APE is, the following article provides some :insights: : : https://www.devever.net/~hl/ortega : :The TLDR is that APE is what steals packets and feeds them to the BCM. :I think it is running even when the machine is powered off. Our :bge(4) driver makes some attempt to be nice to the APE and properly :share the PHY such that APE can continue to steal packets. For some :reason this fails. Could be that they changed the firmware interface. :Or maybe there is a subtle bug in our driver. :
I find that entirely unsurprising, but I thought I turned all of that off. I'm glad I don't intend to use the ethernet ports longer than a couple days while a replacement card is shipped. :> The /etc/hostname.bge0 is trivial: :> inet autoconf :> inet6 autoconf :> inet6 -temporary :> up :> :> And both address families get an address, IPv4 and IPv6 work just fine :> after a moment. I'm not able to do a speed-test, but can get decent :> throughput on it, ~320Mbps from a wifi client. : :The APE probably brings up the PHY and puts it in a usable state. So :things work. But you probably can't reconfigure the PHY, i.e. if you :wanted to do run at 100baseTX. : -- Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.
