Re: [Bug #11382] e1000e: 2.6.27-rc1 corrupts EEPROM/NVM

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Thu Sep 25 2008 - 18:59:28 EST


Jiri Kosina wrote:
On Thu, 25 Sep 2008, Jesse Barnes wrote:

However, the "Factory" log at #425480 *does* indicate that a GEM aware 2D driver was loaded (the "[drm:i915_getparam] *ERROR* Unknown parameter 5" message indicates as much), but the kernel was definitely not GEM aware otherwise the call would have succeeded. So that rules out GEM proper, but it could still be a bug in one of the non-GEM paths in the experimental xf86-video-intel bits the various distros seem to be picking up.

That was exactly the point I was trying to make, that these error paths will probably also need auditing, once we rule out the possibility of NVRAM being overwritten from kernelspace.


Okay, I just had a scary and hopefully stupid thought.

Especially Intel often has backchannels between the chipset and the Ethernet controller for management functions -- anything from WoL to IPMI -- generally over some kind of low-speed serial bus.

We're not in a situation where the EEPROM can be touched from the chipset via the SMBus or some other non-CPU channel?

-hpa
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