[E1000-devel] e1000e + ICH8 GbE flash lock, kernel 3.9.6

[Martin Z. <mar...@ef...>]

Dear linux nics,

Is the e1000e GbE flash sector write protect still necessary 
(e1000e_write_protect_nvm_ich8lan)?

I had some issues with booting the Linux kernel and afterwards update 
the system BIOS after a warm reboot.

The system BIOS update does three steps:
1. save GbE NVM sector via EEUPDATE.EXE
2. update system BIOS (which seems to overwrite the ICH8 NVM completely 
with default values)
3. restore GbE NVM sector (or MAC) via EEUPDATE.EXE

This does not work after I booted the Linux kernel before because of the 
write lock of the GbE NVM sector and the Flash Config register (PR0). 
Also EEUPDATE.EXE stated no error, but was unable to write the EEPROM 
(checked with EEUPDATE /GUI).
It works if I coldboot after a Linux boot as stated in the documentation.

With this procedure I rendered many ICH8 NIC's unusable (all with same 
MAC). Have to fix this with ethtool.

So I have two questions:
1. Is the lock still necessary?
2. If I use the e1000e driver without the lock 
(e1000e.WriteProtectNVM=0) would the NVM of my ICH8/82567V-3 Gigabit 
Network (DevID: 8086:1501) become corrupt or is this device ID save? (I 
still don't know the cause for the corruption back in 2008 - ftrace?)

Currently I use the 3.9.6 kernel and the e1000e: Intel(R) PRO/1000 
Network Driver - 2.2.14-k.


ps.: I'm not on the list.

Thanks and best regards,

-- 

Martin Zwickel
Research & Development

My excuse: There are 10 types of people in the world...
            those who understand binary and those who don't.