Redhat Enterprise 4 and BroadCom NetXtreme II 5708

Question

Hello,

I recently received a new PE 2950 w/o an installed OS. After a successful installation of Redhat Enterprise 4, I noticed that BroadCom NetXtreme II was not being recognized. I then went and downloaded the latest drivers from Dell's site and installed the drivers according to the directions. However, I'm a having a hard time getting it to work correctly. When I ping, I get Destination Host Unreachable.

Here is what I have done thus far & noticed.
1. IP/Network Settings are correct.
2. NIC is up and running. Verified through ifconfig and /var/log/messages
3. bnx2 driver is loaded. Verified through lsmod.
4. Switched cabling.
5. Connected a laptop via xover cable directly to server. Unable to contact.
6. Can ping localhost/local IP.

Can anybody help? Any suggestions?

Chris

pfuchs · Answer

Hi, I think we have exactly the same problem. Could you please let me know if you were able to solve this problem? Regards, Peter

iacullwd · Answer

Try plugging the cable into the other network port. I've found that ports are "mislabeled" if you will. Port 2 corresponds to eth0 and port 1 corresponds to eth1 under RHEL4. If that doesn't work you'll need to remove the TCP offload engine, which doesn't work correctly with linux all the time and go through a rahter complicated process. First try just switching ports if that doesn't work, reply to this message, and I'll give you the long "remove the TOE" way to do it. I've run into this same problem, and it is a pretty easy fix once you know how.
Cheers,
Walt

cshawkeye144 · Answer

Yes, it was indeed the NIC mislabeling. Very frustrating.

rchristy · Answer

Is this mislabeling of the NIC ports still happening? I just received an new 2950 without an OS. I attempted to install RedHat 4ES Update 4 over the network but I haven't been able to get the network to be detected. This sounds like the same issue I'm having.

Is this a RedHat issue with this hardware or is Dell just mislabeling the ports? I've installed RedHat over the network on multiple 2850s and didn't have this issue with the ports being backwards.

Thanks,

Rich

rchristy · Answer

Yea, that was my issue as well.

iacullwd · Answer

It seems to be with the PowerEdge x9xx series hardware (I don't know about the 1955's but I'd guess [we don't have any or any on order] no because of the way they interact with their enclosure, but I could be wrong) so other series seem not to have this problem. In my lab tests this seems true. All of my x8xx PowerEdge hardware DID NOT have this problem while ALL of my x9xx series hardware DOES have this problem.

pbaumgar · Answer

Here's the fix and explanation: http://linux.dell.com/files/whitepapers/nic-enum-whitepaper-v3.pdf

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Redhat Enterprise 4 and BroadCom NetXtreme II 5708

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