Bug 97352 - (NET 8139TOO) 8139too driver broken in bootnet.img for kickstart install of RedHat 8.0
Summary: (NET 8139TOO) 8139too driver broken in bootnet.img for kickstart install of R...
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: kernel
Version: 8.0
Hardware: i686
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Jeff Garzik
QA Contact: Brian Brock
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2003-06-13 15:25 UTC by Need Real Name
Modified: 2013-07-03 02:11 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2003-06-23 16:21:55 UTC
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Need Real Name 2003-06-13 15:25:50 UTC
From Bugzilla Helper:
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Netscape/7.0

Description of problem:
We have successfully deployed RedHat 7.3 on serveral hundred of workstations
using Kickstart with DHCP/NFS , including 50 with a RealTeck network card with a
RTL 8139 chipset.

With RedHat 8.0 , these network cards are indeed detected but all
DHCP requests fail... If we enter the appropriate IP/gateway , NFS mounting fail... 

So we suspect the driver provided in bootnet.img to be broken.

No problem on the same machine with Kickstart install of redHat 7.2, 7.3 or 9.0 ! 

Problem is we cannot use RedHat 9 due to some software that do not 
function with the latest kernel (?) such as Kylix 3 or MyODBC ( complaining
about GLIBC symbols not defined...)






Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.use regular procedure to dd the bootnet.img
2.reply either yes or no to " do you have a driver disk"
3.make no difference since 8139too is on bootnet.img

    

Actual Results:  failure of dhcp request... 

Additional info:

Comment 1 Michael Fulbright 2003-06-13 16:24:47 UTC
Jeremy do you know of any issues related to this hw?

Comment 2 Kaj J. Niemi 2003-06-23 13:39:33 UTC
Are you able to disabe APIC and/or MPS 1.1/1.4 in BIOS?

This sounds awfully similar to the trouble I had with Shuttle
<http://www.shuttle.com/> manufactured PCs. At that time the Pentium 4s weren't
HT capable this was a good workaround at install time and has been working well
since. AFAIR this was actually a "feature" of the 8139 driver used, RH had the
"wrong" one I think. 

Latest Shuttle designs SB61G2 support 800 FSB P4s with HT so I guess I'll have
to revisit this problem soon. They're still using the same el cheapo integrated
RT 8139 ethernet controller instead of something bluechip (like e100/e1000) ;-)

Comment 3 Need Real Name 2003-06-23 16:21:55 UTC
Congratulations Kaj,
    This fixed my problem.

   Test 1: on the BIOS (Award BIOS, advanced setting) we disabled APIC and
Kickstart install works nicely: DHCP,NFS and post install.

    Test 2: I added "noapic" on the append line in the syslinux.cfg file for
these machines and left APIC enabled in BIOS.  Install is still OK, and when
rebooting the network card runs smootly.
  
   So the 3189too driver on the kickstart disquette are "APIC unaware", but the
drivers installed are "APIC aware", so no need to disable it for good in the BIOS


Thanks again for a real good advice.
Take care.


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