[bmc/for-next RFC 0/1] ipmi: Retry BMC 100 times

[bmc/for-next RFC 0/1] ipmi: Retry BMC 100 times

[Nabil S. Alramli]

Hello ipmi / BMC experts,

We have been dealing with certain servers where the BMC firmware takes
longer than usual to become available. We have been able to work around
the problem by increasing the BMC retry counter GET_DEVICE_ID_MAX_RETRY
from 5 to 100. Would you please share some guidance on whether or not this
is a valid approach, and if it would be possible to incorporate in your
next release?

Best Regards,

Nabil S. Alramli (1):
  ipmi: Retry BMC 100 times

 include/linux/ipmi.h | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

-- 
2.43.0

[bmc/for-next RFC 1/1] ipmi: Retry BMC 100 times

[Nabil S. Alramli]

On certain hardware, the BMC firmware takes longer to become available. We
get errors that look like below, after which the BMC does not recover and
is unavailable for the rest of the boot:

```
kernel: ipmi_si IPI0001:00: BMC returned 0xc0, retry get bmc device id
kernel: ipmi_si IPI0001:00: BMC returned 0xc0, retry get bmc device id
kernel: ipmi_si IPI0001:00: BMC returned 0xc0, retry get bmc device id
kernel: ipmi_si IPI0001:00: BMC returned 0xc0, retry get bmc device id
kernel: ipmi_si IPI0001:00: BMC returned 0xc0, retry get bmc device id
kernel: ipmi_si IPI0001:00: There appears to be no BMC at this location
```

The fix is to increase the number of retries from 5 to 100, which allows
the BMC firmware on this hardware enough time to start up.

Signed-off-by: Nabil S. Alramli <dev@nalramli.com>
---
 include/linux/ipmi.h | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/ipmi.h b/include/linux/ipmi.h
index 7da6602eab71..662c664ce9de 100644
--- a/include/linux/ipmi.h
+++ b/include/linux/ipmi.h
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@ struct ipmi_smi_info {
 /* This is to get the private info of struct ipmi_smi */
 extern int ipmi_get_smi_info(int if_num, struct ipmi_smi_info *data);
 
-#define GET_DEVICE_ID_MAX_RETRY		5
+#define GET_DEVICE_ID_MAX_RETRY		100
 
 /* Helper function for computing the IPMB checksum of some data. */
 unsigned char ipmb_checksum(unsigned char *data, int size);
-- 
2.43.0

Re: [bmc/for-next RFC 0/1] ipmi: Retry BMC 100 times

[Corey Minyard]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2026 at 06:47:40PM -0400, Nabil S. Alramli wrote:
> Hello ipmi / BMC experts,
> 
> We have been dealing with certain servers where the BMC firmware takes
> longer than usual to become available. We have been able to work around
> the problem by increasing the BMC retry counter GET_DEVICE_ID_MAX_RETRY
> from 5 to 100. Would you please share some guidance on whether or not this
> is a valid approach, and if it would be possible to incorporate in your
> next release?

No, this is not going to work.  It can increase boot times too much on
some systems where IPMI isn't working quite right.

The right way to fix this is to schedule something later to keep
retrying.  That's going to be a lot more complicated.

-corey

> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Nabil S. Alramli (1):
>   ipmi: Retry BMC 100 times
> 
>  include/linux/ipmi.h | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> -- 
> 2.43.0
>