We’re testing a new server from our primary vendor, one which uses Xeon 5130 chips, on the SuperMicro X7DVL-E motherboard. This board uses Intel’s new onboard 82563EB NIC. For some reason Intel designs their NICs to not be backwards compatible in any way, and so each new NIC release seems to require a brand new version of their drivers — I guess we’re using bleeding edge ethernet technology!!!1!1!
Unfortunately, Intel themselves only offer a Windows driver. Searches on Intel for “82536EB linux” and similar queries turn up nothing (Update May ‘08: I typo’d. You can indeed find them by searching for 82563EB. I don’t remember if that was the case in ‘06.). Strangely, the only place you can find the Linux driver is at Supermicro’s FTP site. The driver is not in to the most recent Linux kernel (2.6.17.8 at the time of this posting).
Loosely following the directions to install Debian on Areca-based RAIDs, I’ve made an ISO that will let you net-install Debian Sarge 3.1 (r0a) on a server with a 82563EB chip. The only differences between this CD and Debian’s official CD are an updated e1000 driver in the nic-extra-modules udeb, in the kernel-image-2.6.8-2-386.deb and in the initrd image. If you choose to upgrade or replace the kernel, you’ll want to rebuild the e1000 driver using the source code found at the FTP server mentioned above.
I can’t provide any support for this ISO, of course. At your own risk, yadda yadda.
FreeBSD users: The mailing lists indicate that driver support for this card is now available in 6.1-STABLE (so install -RELEASE from a CD, and then I guess cvsup on another server, burn the contents of /usr/src/sys to another CD, and sneakernet it over to your new box?), but I still don’t see any notes about it in the CVS commit logs (and they do usually list the chips that are newly supported).
(Updated: It’s not the 82536, it’s the 82563.)
August 9th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Intel can go right to hell.
August 23rd, 2006 at 10:25 am
Thanks for posting the .iso. It saved me a *lot* of time.
August 24th, 2006 at 1:14 am
This isn’t true anymore - Intel’s got the 7.2.7 version out.
Here’s a page that worked yesterday:
http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/CS-006120.htm
- just follow the link to the Linux Base Driver.
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/ is some URL to remember.
August 25th, 2006 at 1:31 am
Here’s the URL of the package (works again):
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/df-support/9180/eng/e1000-7.2.7.tar.gz
August 25th, 2006 at 6:46 am
Yeah, that’s the one. It doesn’t explicitly state it supports the 82563EB chip, while it does list a whole bunch of other chips, I think that’s why I missed it while I was looking for it.
September 8th, 2006 at 3:01 am
Thanks alot, I’ve pulled my hair over this new server for a good 30 minutes - and you saved me from getting completely bald!
September 14th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Just checked with http://www.kernel.org/ and found that the e1000 driver didn#t make it into 2.6.17.13. I cannot spot it in the 2.6.18-rc* shortlogs either… which means that homegrown kernels are still en vogue, or one would have to pick up some old eepro100 or the like to perform CD installs…
October 4th, 2006 at 9:26 am
What PCI ID does this thing have?
Apparently 82563EB is just a PHY chip which is connected to the “Kumeran interface port of the 631xESB/632xESB I/O Controller Hub” - so you really need to look for ESB2 support. And seems that ESB2 is supported even in 2.6.17:
http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=6418ecc68e1d9416451b6f78ebb2c0b077e0abf2
The diff seems to mention 82563 too. Added PCI IDs are 1096, 1098 and 10B9.
October 12th, 2006 at 2:09 am
Hi,
I’ve also struggled with the 82563EB. After some fiddling around, I found out that the drivers provided by the e1000 sourceforge project where my best option. The other drivers wouldn’t compile (Debian amd64 / 2.6.18).
http://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000
October 16th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Thank you SO much for posting this ISO. Starting a server build-out Friday night with no tech support available was making me very worried until I found this post. You are a lifesaver. Any chance you can post detailed instructions on making that ISO? I haven’t ever done anything like that and it’d be a useful skill to have. Also, who is your primary system vendor that you mentioned? I was doing the build-out on a iServ R253 server from Silicon Mechanics (www.siliconmechanics.com). They rock by the way.
October 16th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
I don’t recall the exact steps I used, but those instructions for the Areca RAID were used as a baseline. It basically involved adding a .udeb to the ISO, to be used by the installer, adding the file to the initrd filesystem, and then I think I set it up to be installed along with the default kernel.
That was the same server this was built for, the R253. Silicon Mechanics is indeed great.
March 31st, 2007 at 6:16 am
Thanks a lot for this ISO - it too saved me a lot of time and grey hair ;-)
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Hello,
I just would like to inform people that the latest version of e1000 drivers published on intel web site doesn’t work on 82563EB controlers.
7.615 version is for me the only version working. I have been waiting for insersion of the driver into 2.6.25 version but it wont be.
8.0.1 version (lastest) shows the same problem on the controler.