Re: e1000: "fix" it on thinkpad x60 / eeprom checksum read fails

Pavel Machek
2006-07-20T17:07:46Z

Hi!

> >e1000 in thinkpad x60 fails without this dirty hack. What to do with
> >it?
> >
> >Signed-off-by: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz>
>
> NAK, certainly this should never be merged in any tree...
>
> this is a known issue that we're tracking here:
>
> http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1474679&group_id=42302&atid=447449
>
> Summary of the issue:
>
> Lenovo has used certain BIOS versions where ASPD/DSPD was turned on which
> turns the PHY off when no cable is inserted to save power. The e1000 driver
> already turns off this feature but can't do this until the driver is
> loaded. It seems that turning this feature on causes the MAC to give read
> errors.
>
> Lenovo seems to have the feature turned off in their latest BIOS versions,
> we encourage all people to upgrade their BIOS with the latest version from
> Lenovo (available from their website). It seems that for at least 2 people,
> this has fixed the problem.
>
> Inserting a cable obviously might also work :)

Hehe.

> We did reproduce the problem initially with the old BIOS (1.01-1.03) on a
> T60 system, but unfortunately the bug disappeared into nothingness.
>
> Bypassing the checksum leaves the NIC in an uncertain state and is not
> recommended.

Okay, perhaps this should be inserted as a comment into the driver,
and printk should be fixed to point at this explanation?

Can't we enable the driver with the bad checksum, then read the _real_
data?
Pavel
--
Thanks, Sharp!