[Intel-wired-lan] How to update firmware?

[Intel-wired-lan] How to update firmware?

[Paul Menzel]

Dear Linux folks,


How can I update the firmware of Intel network cards with free software 
utilities? Dell provides a binary to update the firmware, and it worked, 
but I?d like to have the sources. In this case, it was about the device 
below.

```
$ dmesg | grep igb
[?]
[   18.439815] igb: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Driver - version 
5.4.0-k
[   18.466882] igb: Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Intel Corporation.
[   18.530769] igb 0000:04:00.0: added PHC on eth0
[   18.530772] igb 0000:04:00.0: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network 
Connection
[   18.530773] igb 0000:04:00.0: eth0: (PCIe:5.0Gb/s:Width x2) 
e4:43:4b:13:51:f4
[   18.531091] igb 0000:04:00.0: eth0: PBA No: G61346-018
[   18.531092] igb 0000:04:00.0: Using MSI-X interrupts. 8 rx queue(s), 
8 tx queue(s)
[?]
$ ethtool -i etrh0
driver: ixgbe
version: 5.1.0-k
firmware-version: 0x8000095c, 18.8.9
expansion-rom-version:
bus-info: 0000:01:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: yes
```


Kind regards,

Paul

[Intel-wired-lan] How to update firmware?

[Fujinaka, Todd]

What part? The 1G parts didn't have much firmware (only one had a little) and some of the 10G parts didn't, either.

We don't release the source to the firmware updater and there might not be an update for you anyway.

Todd Fujinaka
Software Application Engineer
Datacenter Engineering Group
Intel Corporation
todd.fujinaka at intel.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Intel-wired-lan [mailto:intel-wired-lan-bounces at osuosl.org] On Behalf Of Paul Menzel
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2019 12:39 PM
To: intel-wired-lan@lists.osuosl.org
Subject: [Intel-wired-lan] How to update firmware?

Dear Linux folks,


How can I update the firmware of Intel network cards with free software utilities? Dell provides a binary to update the firmware, and it worked, but I?d like to have the sources. In this case, it was about the device below.

```
$ dmesg | grep igb
[?]
[   18.439815] igb: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Driver - version 
5.4.0-k
[   18.466882] igb: Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Intel Corporation.
[   18.530769] igb 0000:04:00.0: added PHC on eth0
[   18.530772] igb 0000:04:00.0: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network 
Connection
[   18.530773] igb 0000:04:00.0: eth0: (PCIe:5.0Gb/s:Width x2) 
e4:43:4b:13:51:f4
[   18.531091] igb 0000:04:00.0: eth0: PBA No: G61346-018
[   18.531092] igb 0000:04:00.0: Using MSI-X interrupts. 8 rx queue(s), 
8 tx queue(s)
[?]
$ ethtool -i etrh0
driver: ixgbe
version: 5.1.0-k
firmware-version: 0x8000095c, 18.8.9
expansion-rom-version:
bus-info: 0000:01:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: yes
```


Kind regards,

Paul
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[Intel-wired-lan] How to update firmware?

[Paul Menzel]

Dear Todd,


Thank you for your answer. Please find my answers below (interleaved style).


On 20.07.19 18:11, Fujinaka, Todd wrote:
> What part? The 1G parts didn't have much firmware (only one had a
> little) and some of the 10G parts didn't, either.

Sorry, I do not understand. There is a firmware line in the output of
`ethtool` and it was indeed updated to 18.8.9 by runnig the
(proprietary) Dell update pragram.

> We don't release the source to the firmware updater and there might
> not be an update for you anyway.

As written, Dell offers an update.

So, why don?t you release the source for the firmware updater under a 
free licence? We really like to audit all the programs, we run, and 
review (by ourselves or others) them.

So main goal would be to have just one update interface, for example 
`fwupdmgr`, to only deal with one tool. And Intel would have one place 
to upload the firmware update files to (with security issues addressed 
like signatures, and good release practices like release notes and so on).


Kind regards,

Paul

[Intel-wired-lan] How to update firmware?

[Fujinaka, Todd]

If it's a Dell adapter, the answer is you have to ask Dell for updates.

Todd Fujinaka
Software Application Engineer
Datacenter Engineering Group
Intel Corporation
todd.fujinaka at intel.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Menzel [mailto:pmenzel at molgen.mpg.de] 
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2019 4:11 PM
To: Fujinaka, Todd <todd.fujinaka@intel.com>
Cc: intel-wired-lan at lists.osuosl.org
Subject: Re: [Intel-wired-lan] How to update firmware?

Dear Todd,


Thank you for your answer. Please find my answers below (interleaved style).


On 20.07.19 18:11, Fujinaka, Todd wrote:
> What part? The 1G parts didn't have much firmware (only one had a
> little) and some of the 10G parts didn't, either.

Sorry, I do not understand. There is a firmware line in the output of `ethtool` and it was indeed updated to 18.8.9 by runnig the
(proprietary) Dell update pragram.

> We don't release the source to the firmware updater and there might 
> not be an update for you anyway.

As written, Dell offers an update.

So, why don?t you release the source for the firmware updater under a free licence? We really like to audit all the programs, we run, and review (by ourselves or others) them.

So main goal would be to have just one update interface, for example `fwupdmgr`, to only deal with one tool. And Intel would have one place to upload the firmware update files to (with security issues addressed like signatures, and good release practices like release notes and so on).


Kind regards,

Paul

[Intel-wired-lan] How to update firmware?

[Paul Menzel]

Dear Todd,


Thank you for your answer.


On 7/22/19 4:34 PM, Fujinaka, Todd wrote:
> If it's a Dell adapter, the answer is you have to ask Dell for
> updates.

Please elaborate, that I can better understand your answer. My
original question is about the *tool* to update the firmware.

Dell provides update binaries, which are a pain to use.

So, let?s hope it?s all a misunderstanding due to email and my
poor language skills, but is Intel interested in making
maintenance easy for the users of their devices?

Unfortunately, today firmware is a thing and requirement due to
complex hardware and consequential bugs, and that most extension
cards are ?full blown computers?. As can be seen with the system
firmware (security mitigations (Spectre, Meltdown, and friends),
device manufacturers (in this case Intel) have a big motivation
to be able to push out firmware updates as fast and convenient
as possible. That is why Microsoft actually pushes board vendors
to support UEFI capsules update method, and GNU/Linux users
profit too.

Hopefully, Intel?s network device can learn from other mistakes,
and will take feedback from the community seriously, and work on
improving the situation. Integration in fwupd/LVFS, or at least
opening up the documentation on how to update firmware on a
device, and publishing even implementations for that would be a
great step into that direction.


Kind regards,

Paul

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