Syslinux - Feb 2010 - PXELINUX + LOCALBOOT disables network within operating system

Hi,
I am using syslinux-3.85 (and before till 3.72) and I have seen a peculiar
problem on a couple of machines that I have in my lab.

The problem is that if the machine boots onto PXE, and then does a
"LOCALBOOT 0", the networking component of the OS stops working !!!

If I skip PXE boot, and just let the OS boot, the OS's networking is working
fine.

The problem is seen of all the 3.8 and 3.7 versions that I have tested. This
problem is NOT seen in the 4.0 versions (upto 4.0pre17).

I m using the new MENU system and don't really want to go back to an even
older pxelinux.0 :(

Also, this problem is seen only when booting up the SLES distro's.
If I have RHEL 4/5 on these machines, the networking starts up fine on these
OSes.

Please tell me if any specific machine details are required.

The motherboard is a TYAN TIGER K8WE

$> lspci
00:00.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller (rev a4)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 ISA Bridge (rev b1)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a2)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev f3)
00:07.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller (rev
a3)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address
Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM
Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Miscellaneous Control
00:19.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:19.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address
Map
00:19.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM
Controller
00:19.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Miscellaneous Control
04:00.0 InfiniBand: Mellanox Technologies MT25204 [InfiniHost III Lx HCA] (rev
20)
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV44 [GeForce 6200 LE]
(rev a1)

On 02/24/2010 04:46 AM, Shantanu Gadgil wrote:
> 
> The problem is that if the machine boots onto PXE, and then does a
"LOCALBOOT 0", the networking component of the OS stops working !!!
> 
> The motherboard is a TYAN TIGER K8WE
> 
> 00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller
(rev a3)
This is a known interaction between the PXE driver and the OS driver for
this particular device.  It even happens on some versions of the Windows
driver.

It's unclear to me who to blame for it, but since upgrading the PXE
driver is often very hard for people (it means a BIOS upgrade, if one
even exists), I think that the OS driver would need to deal with it no
matter what.

My understanding is that current Linux and Windows drivers do the right
thing with regards to initializing the device properly, but older ones fail.

	-hpa

-- 
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel.  I don't speak on their behalf.