User guide

NetXtreme II User Guide
September 2013
Broadcom Corporation
Page 328 Linux Document INGSRVT78-CDUM100-R
LINUX
Problem: BCM5771x devices with SFP+ Flow Control default to Off rather than Rx/Tx Enable.
Solution: The Flow Control default setting for revision 1.6.x and newer has been changed to Rx Off and Tx Off because
SFP+ devices do not support Autonegotiation for Flow Control.
Problem: On kernels older than 2.6.16 when 16 partitions are created on a server containing two BCM57711 network
adapters, not all partitions would come up and an error indicating a shortage of space would display.
Solution: On architectures where the default vmalloc size is relatively small and not sufficient to load many interfaces, use
vmalloc=<size> during boot to increase the size.
Problem: Routing does not work for NetXtreme II 10 GbE network adapters installed in Linux systems.
Solution: For NetXtreme II 10 GbE network adapters installed in systems with Linux kernels older than 2.6.26, disable TPA
with either ethtool (if available) or with the driver parameter (see disable_tpa). Use ethtool to disable TPA (LRO) for a specific
NetXtreme II 10 GbE network adapter.
Problem: On a NetXtreme II 1 GbE network adapter in a CNIC environment, flow control does not work.
Solution: Flow control is working, but in a CNIC environment, it has the appearance that it is not. The network adapter is
capable of sending pause frames when the on-chip buffers are depleted, but the adapter also prevents the head-of-line
blocking of other receive queues. Since the head-of-line blocking causes the on-chip firmware to discard packets inside the
on-chip receive buffers, in the case a particular host queue is depleted, the on-chip receive buffers will rarely be depleted,
therefore, it may appear that flow control is not functioning.
Problem: Errors appear when compiling driver source code.
Solution: Some installations of Linux distributions do not install the development tools by default. Ensure the development
tools for the Linux distribution you are using are installed before compiling driver source code.
NPAR
Problem: The following error message displays if the storage configurations are not consistent for all four ports of the device
in NPAR mode:
PXE-M1234: NPAR block contains invalid configuration during boot.
A software defect can cause the system to be unable to BFS boot to an iSCSI or FCoE target if an iSCSI personality is
enabled on the first partition of one port, whereas an FCoE personality is enabled on the first partition of another port. The
MBA driver performs a check for this configuration and prompts the user when it is found.
Solution: If using the 7.6.x firmware and driver, to workaround this error, configure the NPAR block such that if iSCSI or
FCoE is enabled on the first partition, the same must be enabled on all partitions of all four ports of that device.