Distribution: Debian Sarge Hardware Environment: Tyan Thunder K8SR (S2881) dual Opteron (uses BCM5704C onboard dual gigabit ethernet) with 6GB RAM Software Environment: default testing install Problem Description: When driver is included in kernel build, system hangs on boot during network initialization. If driver is not built system boots normally. If driver is built as module kernel boots, and a modprobe tg3 returns successfully, but an ifup will hang the machine. If the onboard NICs are disabled in the BIOS then the kernel will boot normally with the tg3 driver built in. I also tried the 2.4.26, 2.4.27.rc3, and 2.4.7 kernels with the same result. The two Broadcom NICs on the motherboard are BCM5704C chips. We have had no problems on other servers with the tg3 drivers, but those are using either 3Com NICs or an older on-board broadcom chip (both of which use the BCM5701 chip and not the 5704 on this new motherboard). Steps to reproduce: Build kernel with tg3 support Boot with new kernel Watch it hang on "Configuringing network interfaces..." (the driver does log that it detected the two onboard Broadcom NICs earlier in the boot sequence, it just hangs when its time to bring it up, even if the only interface configured in /etc/network/intefaces is loopback). If built as module, load module then ifup a gigabit interface
Tried building 2.6.8.1 kernel on same system with (slightly) better results. Machine can boot fine, interface can be brought up, but very shortly afterwards (as soon as it has traffic?) kernel panics, whether tg3 s built as module or builtin. The beginning of the panic scrolls off the screen, any ideas on how to capture it?
Created attachment 3564 [details] additional console messages (including panic)
I have seen this back since 2.6.5 and it's present in 2.6.8rc4 from gentoo on a similar box (using Tyan S2882 with the same onboard Ethernet).
Same here, with a twist. [tried it with vanilla 2.6.10 and 2.6.11, all the same results) I've got 3 types of systems: a) IBM X335, Dual Xeon with 2x BCM95703A30 NIC b) IBM X305, Single P4 with 2x BCM95703A30 NIC c) Bladecenter HS20, Dual Xeon with 2x BCM95704A41 NIC The X335s iand X305s always work. The blades work when booted with an SMP kernel, but when I boot it with a uniprocessor kernel it hangs on the initialization of the NICs Unfortunately I don't have access to a single CPU system with a BCM95704A41 NIC.
What is the status of this issue in kernel 2.6.16?
Please reopen this bug if it's still present in kernel 2.6.17.