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37888
R410/510/610/710 BIOS version 1.4.7 buggy for westmere.
Hi all,
We have here R410 servers with Intel L5640 CPUs (Westmere microarchitecture).
L5640s support the new AES instructions, as well as the PCLMULQDQ instruction.
The BIOS version 1.4.7 displays a field ``Intel(R) AES-NI'', which is not modifiable, and says ``enabled''. Unfortunately the BIOS writer apparently misunderstood Intel's documentation, and instead of enabling the instructions, BIOS 1.4.7 invariably sets bis 0 and 1 of the MSR number 0x13c, which has the effect of _disabling_ the AES instructions.
The older BIOS version 1.3.9 plays no funny game with this MSR, and as a consequence, AES instructions do work when BIOS is downgraded to 1.3.9:
@dell: please fix your bios, and adjust your testing procedures. You might want to fix function aes_config in mp.rom, or maybe fix setup.ibl's data field at offset 0x14c32 (haven't figured out all the bits).
Regards,
E.
moqtada
10 Posts
0
October 22nd, 2010 21:00
Hi,
I have encountered a similar issue after updating the BIOS on a Poweredge M610 with Intel X6850 CPUs.
With BIOS 2.0.11, my GNU/Linux kernel detects and uses the AES-NI instructions.
With BIOS 2.1.15, the kernel no longer sees AES-NI and fails with error messages when trying to use it.
I have rolled back to the 2.0.11 BIOS and it all works again.
I have not tried any of the intermediate BIOS updates, but looking at the release notes on http://ftp.dell.com/bios/PEM610-020109BIOS.txt it was most likely introduced in BIOS 2.1.9
Similar to the original poster, the 2.1.15 BIOS shows the AES-NI as an unmodifiable option in the BIOS that is set to enabled.
Regards
moqtada
10 Posts
0
January 1st, 2011 11:00
This issue is apparently fixed in the latest BIOS http://ftp.dell.com/bios/PEM610-020209BIOS.TXT
cawn01
24 Posts
0
August 31st, 2012 05:00
We want to disable AES-NI in our BIOS 2.1.9 - becurs we have vmontion problems.
HOW CAN WE DO THAT?