Re: [PATCH] net/ice: improve log messages for DDP loading

[Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson@intel.com>]

On Wed, May 20, 2026 at 05:44:14PM +0200, David Marchand wrote:
> On Tue, 19 May 2026 at 19:58, Bruce Richardson
> <bruce.richardson@intel.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Sat, May 16, 2026 at 12:19:41PM +0200, David Marchand wrote:
> > > Some nics may not provide a serial number (PCI capability
> > > RTE_PCI_EXT_CAP_ID_DSN).
> > >
> > > This results in a confusing ERROR log:
> > > ICE_INIT: ice_dev_init(): Failed to read device serial number
> > >
> > > This is confusing as DDP loading does *not* require the serial number to
> > > be present for the port to be functional afterwards.
> > >
> > > Besides, after trying various path, if the default DDP is not present on
> > > the runtime system, the port initialisation ends up with a vague error:
> > > ICE_INIT: ice_load_pkg(): failed to search file path
> > >
> > > Improve the situation with adjusting the log level when reading the
> > > SN fails, then add more debug context to DDP file loading and end up
> > > with a ERROR log mentioning the expected file.
> > >
> > > ICE_INIT: ice_firmware_read(): Cannot read DDP file
> > >       /lib/firmware/updates/intel/ice/ddp/ice-b49691ffffe6e69c.pkg
> > > ICE_INIT: ice_firmware_read(): Cannot read DDP file
> > >       /lib/firmware/intel/ice/ddp/ice-b49691ffffe6e69c.pkg
> > > ICE_INIT: ice_firmware_read(): Cannot read DDP file
> > >       /lib/firmware/updates/intel/ice/ddp/ice.pkg
> > > ICE_INIT: ice_firmware_read(): Cannot read DDP file
> > >       /lib/firmware/intel/ice/ddp/ice.pkg
> > > ICE_INIT: ice_load_pkg(): Failed to load default DDP package
> > >       /lib/firmware/intel/ice/ddp/ice.pkg
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: David Marchand <david.marchand@redhat.com>
> > > ---
> > >  drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_ethdev.c | 31 ++++++++++++++++++++----------
> > >  1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
> > >
> > On top of the changes made in this patch, how about something like the
> > below to extend things?
> >
> > Rather than just debug logging the failed paths, we change the debug logs
> > to always log each load attempt. We also record the path as it's attempted,
> > and then on failure to load any path we use that record to print out an
> > error message for each failure, so the user can see in the error logs ALL
> > the failed paths, rather than having to re-run the app at debug level to
> > find them.
> >
> > WDYT?
> 
> That's a lot of code for something that is usually detected right at
> the first installation/run of your DPDK application.
> When you are at this point, restarting testpmd with the right debug
> level is the usual way.
> 
> But let's say you can't restart your application, log levels can be
> changed dynamically (possible with testpmd, grout and OVS)
> before/after trying to probe the E810 device.
> 
Yes, true. Probably not worth the effort at this point.

/Bruce