Hello We developed a communication device which is euiped with four 82573 Network chips. The MAC address is read from an external EEPROM. Up to now we are using the Kernel Version 2.6.30 with its Standard e1000e driver. The Version of the driver in this Kernel is "0.3.3.4-k4". With this driver Version we faced the well known problem that the Checksum of the EEPROM/NVRAM got invalid and the device does not get initialized. After a little research I found out that higher Kernel Versions include a patch which disables the L1 ASPM which should fix the problem. In order to solve this issue I downloaded the latest Version of the driver from the intel homepage (http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=15817). This Version is marked as 1.3.10a. After I tested this Version I noticed that the MAC address is not read from the EEPROM. It seems to me that all MAC operations are mapped to the functions of the 82571 chip. Which disables the usage of the alternate MAC address for the 82573. This code fragment can also be found in the driver of the Linux Kernel 2.6.37. static s32 e1000_read_mac_addr_82571(struct e1000_hw *hw) { s32 ret_val = E1000_SUCCESS; if (hw->mac.type == e1000_82571) { // <------- only allow alternate MAC address for the 82571 ??? /* * If there's an alternate MAC address place it in RAR0 * so that it will override the Si installed default perm * address. */ ret_val = e1000_check_alt_mac_addr_generic(hw); if (ret_val) goto out; } ret_val = e1000_read_mac_addr_generic(hw); out: return ret_val; } Our communication device is used in an industrial environment which means that the loose of a network interface caused by an invalid checksum of the EEPROM is unacceptable. Is the Checksum problem solved in a recent version of the driver? Is there are reason why the alternate MAC address support for the 82573 chip is disabled in newer Versions of the driver?
Martin Mangard Software Development / Softwareentwicklung AutomationX GmbH Teslastrasse 8 A-8074 Grambach bei Graz/Austria Tel.++43 / 316 / 4000 - 321 Fax ++43 /316 / 4000 - 39 http://www.automationX.com <http://www.automationx.com/> mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Firmenbuchnummer: FN 190475k Firmenbuchgericht: Landesgericht für ZRS Graz This message may contain privileged and/or confidential information. If you received this email in error or are not the intended recipient, you may not use, copy, disseminate or distribute it. Do not open any attachments, delete it immediately from your system and notify the sender promptly by email that you have done so. Thank you.
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