Description of problem: I'm running a Dell PowerEdge 2850 that came pre-installed with Red Hat Enterprise 4. I run up2date and get the latest kernel from Red Hat Network. If I attempt to use the newer kernels, my network cards are not found. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp (for example) How reproducible: Every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. boot with new kernel 2. kaboom 3. Actual results: No network Expected results: Functioning network Additional info: lspci says my network cards are: 06:07.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82541GI/PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 05) 07:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82541GI/PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 05) I have three such devices, two are built-in network ports and one is a card. They all report as the same type. When they work (with the older kernel), the driver name is e1000. The working kernel version is: 2.6.9-5.ELsmp #1 SMP Wed Jan 5 19:30:39 EST 2005 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux With newer kernels I get this message in my messages file: ifup: Device eth0 has different MAC address than expected, ignoring. network: Bringing up interface eth0: failed I also see messages like this: kernel: e1000: version magic '2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp SMP 686 REGPARM 4KSTACKS gcc-3.2' should be '2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp SMP 686 REGPARM 4KSTACKS gcc-3.4' To the best of my understanding, I do _not_ have eth0 pinned to a specific MAC address. The e1000 module doesn't appear in my lsmod list, and of course the network doesn't start and network-dependent system functions don't work. I have other kernels installed besides 2.6.9-42.x.y.z and I have not tested them all. The network cards do work with my originally installed configuration.
I tested with more of the kernel versions available on this machine 2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp - not working 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp - not working 2.6.9-42.ELsmp - works! 2.6.9.34.ELsmp - works! So, it looks like only the most recent kernels on my system fail to work correctly with my network adaptors.
Most likely Dell shipped your system with an e1000 driver that we did not include. Dell has application called dkms that does this. Run 'ethtool -i eth0' on your 2.6.9-42.ELsmp kernel system and post the output to this bugzilla. Here is the output on my RHEL4.4 system: # uname -rv 2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp #1 SMP Mon Sep 25 17:24:31 EDT 2006 # ethtool -i eth0 driver: e1000 version: 7.0.33-k2-NAPI firmware-version: N/A bus-info: 0000:03:0e.0 I'd bet your driver version will say something newer than 7.0.33 (which means you are using a driver provided by Dell). If you would like to be sure your system will work with the upcoming redhat kernel release (4.5) you can try my TEST kernels from here (they also have some other experimental patches): http://people.redhat.com/agospoda/#rhel4 or you can try these (slightly more stable) BETA kernels: http://people.redhat.com/jbaron/rhel4/RPMS.kernel/
Andy, You are completely correct. By removing the e1000 DKMS package using rpm -e e1000-5.7.6.1-sb_dkms I am now able to boot the most recent kernel on my system (2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp). Please let me know if there is something else I need to do to close out this issue in bugzilla. Chris
Great! I'll close it out.