HP Integrity BL860c Server Blade Linux Installation white paper
the README.TXT and TG3.TXT files located under the following directories
For Red Hat: /usr/share/doc/tg3-<version>
For SLES: /usr/share/doc/packages/tg3
For more background regarding installing Linux on the BL860c, please
consult the "HP Integrity BL860c Server Linux Installation White Paper"
at http://www.docs.hp.com/en/5991-8659/index.html.
Background
==========
This driver fixes a problem with getting Ethernet connections to work on
the HP BL860c blade with the Ethernet Pass-Thru interconnect module
(406740-B21). The problem is that the existing Ethernet Linux driver
(tg3) will not properly autonegotiate to get an Ethernet connection.
The driver for HP-UX, EFI, and Windows driver have already been changed
to fix this problem.
This problem only occurs on BL860c blade when being used with the
Ethernet Pass-Thru interconnect module (406740-B21). This problem will
not occur with any of the BL860c supported switches for c-Class, such
as: (a) Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3020 (410916-B21) or (b) HP GbE2c
Ethernet Blade Switch (438030-B21).
The 3.71b version of the tg3 driver fixes this problem. We are working
to get the fixed tg3 driver to be included in future versions of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The tg3 driver in
RHEL4U4 and SLES10 will not work with with Pass-Thru.
The failure mode with the existing tg3 driver is that it fails to get an
Ethernet connection at all. If you need to get an old Linux
distribution to work with the Pass-Thru then you can work around it with
ethtool command to turn off autonegotiation. Either on the kernel
command line or once booted. Using ethtool to work around this problem
might not work after Linux is installed, and updating the driver is
recommended.
Even with the fixed tg3 driver the system may not establish a link 100
percent of the time because of a hardware problem. This is an issue that
manifests itself on Linux and does not affect other operating systems.
Until this issue is resolved, if the system does not establish a link,
then simply retry the Ethernet operation that failed.
Packaging
=========
The driver is released in a source RPM format. The file name for the
package is tg3-<version>.src.rpm and is dependent on the kernel source
code. The instructions in the next 5 sections describe how to install
Linux and install the kernel source code.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 AS/ES Installation via CD/DVD
========================================================
Burn the tg3-<version>.src.rpm to a CD/DVD so that it can be used to
install the file.
Go thru the RHEL4U4 install using the RHEL4U4 install media and select
the packages that you need plus the package(s) to be able to build the
tg3 driver. The high level package that is needed to build the tg3
driver is: "Development Tools". If you want to limit the software
installed for building the tg3 driver then use the F2 key during package
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