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We have several deployments of ClearOS 7 servers (hardware: Dell PowerEdge T30) on our clients' networks functioning as gateways. Recently I've been having a problem getting the Interface Masters Niagara 32264 4-port Gigabit NIC (based on Intel 82576) to function on new systems. The problem is that when powered on, all 4 ports on the NIC light up the Activity LED solid, and refuse to recognize anything I plug into them (the Link light never comes on, and ClearOS won't pull an address via DHCP; neither does setting a static address help).

Presently, all 4 ports on it are recognized in ifconfig

p3p1: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether <MAC removed for privacy>  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device memory 0xdf1a0000-df1bffff

p3p2: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 10.5.5.1  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 10.5.5.255
        ether <MAC removed for privacy>  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device memory 0xdf140000-df15ffff

p3p3: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether <MAC removed for privacy>  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device memory 0xdf0a0000-df0bffff

p3p4: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether <MAC removed for privacy>  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

and ethtool -i shows all the correct driver info. (below is for 1 port on the 4-port card)

[root@gateway ~]# ethtool -i p3p2
driver: igb
version: 5.4.0-k
firmware-version: 1.4.1
expansion-rom-version:
bus-info: 0000:06:00.1
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: yes

We have multiple systems with identical cards working just fine, with the exact same kernel (3.10.0-862.11.6.v7.x86_64), and driver version (above).

My theory is that the NIC is stuck in its "bypass" function, but there's basically no documentation available that I could find beyond the datasheet and an obscure reference to a software utility package here.

Can anyone please educate me about the bypass functions available in the Niagara 32264 NIC and how to make mode changes? I've looked all over and can't find technical documentation, but if someone locates it, please share a link. Thanks!

Michael Hampton
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user7902783
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1 Answers1

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all 4 ports on the NIC light up the Activity LED solid, and refuse to recognize anything I plug into them

This indicates that the cards are in bypass mode. You will need to contact Interface Masters support to obtain the driver. The driver should come with a readme file with instructions on how to build it from source. I was not able to build it successfully on ClearOS 7 so I used Ubuntu 16.04 to build the driver and change the mode. The changes you make will persist if you install the NIC in another machine when you are done.

To build the driver:

  1. Install make, gcc, libc-dev, linux-kernel-headers, original-awk, and udev
  2. Copy the driver directory to the machine and cd into it

  3. Run these commands to build the driver:

    • make
    • sudo make install
    • make insmod

  4. cd to /usr/local/bin and you should see niagara_util there

  5. Run niagara_util -Sv to confirm that it detects the NIC

To change the mode:

Note that you will need to run make insmod again if you restarted the machine since building the driver.

  1. cd to /usr/local/bin if you are not already there
  2. Confirm that the driver recognizes the NIC by running niagara_util -Sv
  3. Run sudo niagara_util -d2 to change the default mode to Active
  4. Run sudo niagara_util -p to change the power of mode to Regular
  5. Run niagara_util -i to confirm that the new settings took effect
Shingboo
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