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

["H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>]

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