Re: [Devil-Linux-discuss] 2.6.32 ralink ethernet

[Dick M. <di...@fo...>]

On 03/29/10 16:25, Ashwin wrote:
> On 29-Mar-10 2:08 PM, Dick Middleton wrote:
>> Has anybody else seen the following behaviour:
>>
>> I've got a via mini-itx board which I use as a diskless client using
>> stock Debian.  The root disk is an nbd device and I boot using PXE. The
>> mini-itx board has 2 net interfaces of type Ralink RTL-8110SC/8169SC
>> which uses the r8169 driver.
>>
>> On 2.6.30 this all works fine.  On 2.6.32 the MAC address of the net
>> interface gets corrupted somehow.  The MAC address is correct at cold
>> boot and the system starts but if a reboot takes place or even a power
>> cycle using the power switch or a reset then the net interface has the
>> first 4 octets of the MAC address set to zero.  Only completely removing
>> power from the system will restore the MAC address and allow reboot.
>> This is quite consistent and repeatable on my system.
>>
>> Debian has changed between 2.6.30 and 2.6.32 to remove non-free firmware
>> but so far as I know this net card does not use downloadable firmware so
>> I suspect that this is a problem with the r8169 driver.
>>
>> As Devil is probably quite often used on mini-itx and DL is going to
>> settle on 2.6.32 I thought this might be relevant.
>>
>> Dick
>>
> 
> I have a doubt about the udev rules for this interface, is it possible 
> to check the same ?

That's OK.  The problem is it actually changes the MAC address so it is
incorrect at boot time (in the bios, before any system is loaded).  The
change must take place at shutdown because all is correct whilst system
is running.

This problem might not be seen on a normal system.  It's only because
PXE uses DHCP to get to boot files that it becomes critical.  However it
is possible that the MAC address is being changed on 'ordinary' systems
but the change is not noticed.

I have found reports of bootup strangeness with r8169 driver which I
suspect is the same problem.  I've seen udev blamed in one report when
the information given shows the MAC address has changed. An incorrect
diagnosis I think!  I've also seen the driver being blamed for *reading*
the MAC incorrectly.  In my case that's not the symptom.

Anyway, I'd be curious if anyone sees a similar effect; maybe check MAC
with ifconfig after rebooting.

Dick

-- 
Dick Middleton
di...@fo...
PGP Key ID: 0x9F9434FD