BCM5716 NetXtreme II nic - firmware needed (I think..)

jeanlepharmacien · April 14, 2020 at 11:08 AM

I have a motherboard with this BCM5716 NetXtreme II card (sometimes I see QLogic mentioned also). On Ubuntu this appears to use the bnx module and a "bnx-rvp2.....fw" firmware file

The firmware isnt listed in Libreelec filesytem - how can I obtain firmware for the card?

Have googled and searched forums but not found something useable (yet)

I'm using LE 9.2.0 (kernel 5.1.16)

Any suggestions ?

**chewitt** · April 14, 2020 at 2:29 PM Official Post

See if you can find it here: kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git - Repository of firmware blobs for use with the Linux kernel .. If yes, it's trivial to add.

If not, find it from somewhere else and create /storage/.config/firmware/firmware.fw .. whatever folders/filenames that exist under firmware/ will be mapped to /usr/lib/firmware on rebooting .. so you can self-fix. Check "dmesg" to make sure the driver is actually present in the kernel. If it is you'll see errors for missing firmware. If not, kernel modules will need to be enabled to provide the driver - this requires the image to be recompiled.

jeanlepharmacien · April 15, 2020 at 8:57 AM

Thanks,

OK, I have the firmware file and extracted the relevant files - we'll see how we get on..

I have compiled and built NIC drivers in the past and compiled linux programs (from instructions) if the LE build process is clear (I have found info for compiling a bootable image) I can start with a vanilla build.

May need some handholding advice on building a driver module for an LE build though...but I'll ask about that if the firmware alone fails

Thanks again

**chewitt** · April 15, 2020 at 2:59 PM Official Post

NIC drivers should be as simple as editing the kernel defconfig in projects/Generic/linux/linux.x86_64.conf and re-running the build process. Get a working image first and then make the change.

jeanlepharmacien · May 28, 2020 at 11:18 AM

Finally had more time (what with Covid-19) for this;

Checked dmesg which states

[ 7.668835] bnx2 0000:05:00.0 eth0: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 1000Base-T (C0) PCI Express found at mem da000000, IRQ 16, node addr 00:26:b9:86:11:1e

[ 7.803026] bnx2 0000:05:00.1 eth1: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 1000Base-T (C0) PCI Express found at mem dc000000, IRQ 17, node addr 00:26:b9:86:11:1f

.

"Direct firmware load for bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw failed with error -2

Can't load firmware file "bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw"

"

The firmware file is supplied from another linux install with same kernel version and is in /storage/.config/firmware

So I downloaded all files for a kernel build and checked the linux.x86_64.conf and found the entry for "BNX2=y"

so I'm stumped as to issue as the machine works fine with Ubuntu 18.04 server

[ 6.644475] bnx2: QLogic bnx2 Gigabit Ethernet Driver v2.2.6 (January 29, 2014)

[ 6.704314] bnx2 0000:05:00.0 eth0: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 1000Base-T (C0) PCI Express found at mem da000000, IRQ 16, node addr 00:26:b9:88:ef:58

[ 6.796002] bnx2 0000:05:00.1 eth1: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 1000Base-T (C0) PCI Express found at mem dc000000, IRQ 17, node addr 00:26:b9:88:ef:59

[ 6.860550] bnx2 0000:05:00.1 eno2: renamed from eth1

[ 7.056318] bnx2 0000:05:00.0 eno1: renamed from eth0

[ 24.108019] bnx2 0000:05:00.0 eno1: using MSIX

[ 26.961587] bnx2 0000:05:00.0 eno1: NIC Copper Link is Up, 1000 Mbps full duplex

anyone got a clue here?

**chewitt** · May 28, 2020 at 2:04 PM Official Post

Did you put the firmware in /storage/.config/firmware or /storage/.config/firmware/bnx2/ ? .. files are overlaid on /usr/lib/firmware so if files are normally found in subdirs you need to create them too.

jeanlepharmacien · May 28, 2020 at 9:21 PM

I did put them in /storage/.config/firmware...I notice some symlinks have been created which *seem* to point to the right place.

I'll try the /storage/.config/firmware/bnx2/ and see if that works.

Fortunately, I have found that the console is available on ctrl-alt-f3 and I have midnight commander installed so life isn't too bad..

I do have a bad, bad feeling on this and may have to retreat to Ubuntu server 20.04 with basic window manager + Kodi (the test rig works including the USB DVB-T2 tuners).

Not a failure for LE as I have 4 installs round the house on old Hp T620's (I have no TVs - only LE+second hand good widescreen monitors)

jeanlepharmacien · May 29, 2020 at 11:44 AM

OK have done the move into /storage/.config/firmware/bnx2/

All works well - dmesg as expected.

Many thanks for the help

On another note - as previously suggested re building an image - had downloaded requisites yesterday and left build running. Just checked and build finished and have tested the vanilla LE installable and all seems to work!