# WARNING!!!  2.6.27 RC Kernels Corrupting e1000e EEPROMs

## wswartzendruber

 *Quote:*   

> 2.6.27 Kernel Killing Network Hardware
> 
> Posted by Michael Larabel on September 25, 2008
> 
> In case you missed it, there's a rather serious regression with the e1000e network driver in the Linux 2.6.27 release candidate kernels. This Ethernet driver has been killing some Intel integrated Gigabit network adapters by corrupting the chip's EEPROM. This bug (Bug #11382) has appeared in the Linux kernel and potentially impacts all Linux distributions using 2.6.27 kernel release candidates.
> ...

 

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## ZeuZ_NG

Holly crap!

That sounded like the issue I had with fBSD and aci screwing my HP DV2000 bios, thankfully it got corrected after updating the BIOS last wendsday

This makes me be happy to stay with 2.6.24.7

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## marekd

what about using .27 kernels and NOT USING this module? 

I just need .27 RC kernels to run my intel 5100 card, and don't need my ethernet card, but I don't want it to be corrupted!

Can I be 100% sure, that nothing bad happens, if I don't enable/install/touch e1000e module under 2.6.27-rc5 kernels?

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## Hu

 *marekd wrote:*   

> Can I be 100% sure, that nothing bad happens, if I don't enable/install/touch e1000e module under 2.6.27-rc5 kernels?

 

I have been following this issue, and have not yet seen a definitive root cause analysis.  Therefore, it is not possible to say with 100% certainty that you will be safe, but I have not seen any reports of problems when the module is not used.  Several distributions reacted to the initial report by blacklisting or deleting the e1000e module, and they seem to consider that to be sufficient protection.  If you have a card on the known-vulnerable list and intend to use a 2.6.27-rcX kernel, I recommend deleting the e1000e module from disk, to be certain that it cannot be loaded under any circumstances.

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## marekd

according to kernel.org the latest STABLE kernel version is	2.6.26.5. If I use any kind of 2.6.26 kernel (starting with kernel in gentoo minimal 2008 cd) will I be able to use it safely?Last edited by marekd on Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:52 am; edited 1 time in total

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## Hu

The 2.6.26.x kernels have a working e1000e driver.  Since no one has identified the kernel commit that enabled this corruption, it is not yet possible to say definitively that 2.6.26.x is safe.  As far as I know, there have been no reports of NVM corruption using a 2.6.26.x kernel with e1000e.

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## Etal

Intel is working on it, and they released a temporary fix, so when 2.6.27 is out, it shouldn't be a problem.

http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/10/1/368

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## marekd

it's getting even more strange. Somebody posted similar problems with nvidia chipset. Besides developers suspect xorg 7.4 code. Maybe stable xorg (7.2), e1000e and RC kernels would work, but I don't want to try it right now. I will probably try to use e1000e on 2.6.26 and pray to save my nic.

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