[Bug 263555] Re: [intrepid] 2.6.27 e1000e driver places Intel ICH8 and ICH9 gigE chipsets at risk

[dave graham]

This is unusual, as the

        e1000e_nvm -r –d eth0 -o ethtool.dmp

command normally dumps out the 1Gb portion of the system flash even if
it _does_ have a bad checksum, and then I've been fixing the checksum &
content. Are you sure that there isn't an ethtool.dmp file created in
the local directory from which you ran e1000e_nvm ?

If there really is no ethtool.dmp, please send me

1) lspci -tv
2) lspci -xxx
3) dmesg (that includes the failure of the e1000e driver to load)

and I'll send you an instrumented driver that will dump out the 1Gb
flash content, and we may be able to fix it from there.

At least I hope so. As I say, I've fixed a lot of these corruptions, but
do not recall seeing this particular failure mode before.

Dave



-----Original Message-----
From: bounces at canonical.com [mailto:bounces at canonical.com] On Behalf Of bonsiware
Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 3:26 AM
To: Graham, David
Subject: [Bug 263555] Re: [intrepid] 2.6.27 e1000e driver places Intel ICH8 and ICH9 gigE chipsets at risk

Burned the iso, followed your instructions, but:

            eth0 EEprom len 4096
            checksum ed0e wrong should be 830e

So I can't send you my ethtool.dmp

My notebook is a Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook E8410


Thank you Dave!!!

-- 
[intrepid] 2.6.27 e1000e driver places Intel ICH8 and ICH9 gigE chipsets at risk
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/263555
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Status in The Linux Kernel: Fix Released
Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
Status in “linux-lpia” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
Status in linux in Ubuntu Intrepid: Fix Released
Status in linux-lpia in Ubuntu Intrepid: Fix Released
Status in “linux” package in Fedora: Fix Released
Status in “linux” package in Gentoo Linux: Fix Released
Status in “linux” package in Mandriva: Fix Released
Status in “linux” package in Suse: Fix Released

Bug description:
In some circumstances it appears possible for the 2.6.27-rc kernels to corrupt the NVRAM used by some Intel network parts to store data such as MAC addresses.
This is limited to the new e1000e driver, and reports have only appeared from users of "82566 and 82567 based LAN parts (ich8 and ich9)" (to quote Intel). The reports seem to be isolated to laptops, but it is not clear if this is because desktop/server parts are not vulnerable, or if use cases simply increase the chances of laptop users being hit.

Once this corruption has occurred, recovery may be possible via a BIOS
update, but may well require replacement of the hardware. Use of Intel's
IABUTIL.EXE is strongly discouraged, as it will worsen the problem to
the point where the network part will no longer appear on the PCI bus.

(this is a new description, the original one was based on too much guesswork. Below are the URLs originally referenced)
(the driver i blacklisted in Ubuntu for  2.6.27-rc in the latest releases, so if your network is not working, it doesn't have to be damaged, but just disabled in order to prevent any accidents until this bug is solved, don't wary!) 
http://www.blahonga.org/~art/rant.html (search for "em0")
http://www.mail-archive.com/e1000-devel@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00360.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/e1000-devel@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00398.html

-- 
[intrepid] 2.6.27 e1000e driver places Intel ICH8 and ICH9 gigE chipsets at risk
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/263555
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