macOS update broke iPXE
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@sysadminatelier Thanks for sharing the details. Could you please add
Boot ROM VersionandSMC Versionfrom your MACs. Find a screenshot of where to find those details here.
We are still not exactly sure but it looks like an update of the Boot ROM version is causing the issue. As mentioned here IM143.0118.B13 was alright but IM143.0118.B14 has the issue. -
Hi Sebastian,
For the iMac Late 2012 :
Model Identifier : iMac13,2
Boot ROM : IM131.010A.B11
SMC Version : 2.11f14For the Mac Mini :
Model Identifier : Macmini7,1
Boot ROM Version : MM71.0220.B14
SMC Version : 2.24f32 -
@sysadminatelier Thanks for posting those as well. We have more and more but it just doesn’t add up for me. The boot ROM version numbers seem to differ from model to model and I can’t see where the issue was probably introduced.
As well I am not able to spin up a Sierra (10.12) installation on an old MacBook. Too bad I can’t get a test setup going here.
Maybe we can tackle this from a different angle. Hope you are keen to get into debugging iPXE and test things out. I compiled an iPXE binary with debug enabled (
DEBUG=netdevice,nii,snpnet). Please download01_ipxe.efihere and try it out. Post a picture or video of the output on screen. -
Original pictures (in reverse order): 4_1497885826459_IMG_0189.JPG 3_1497885826459_IMG_0172.JPG 2_1497885826458_IMG_0120.JPG 1_1497885826458_IMG_0112.JPG 0_1497885826458_IMG_0108.JPG
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@sysadminatelier Thanks heaps for testing and posting the pictures. I forgot to ask you if you could do exactly the same on a MAC that is still working so we have an idea of how it is supposed to look like. Could you please?
As well could you pay attention to the status LED on the switch where the client is connected to. Does it come up at all, turns off at some point?
I put together a combined picture which is easier to follow and updated your post. Hope you don’t mind. All the green and yellow messages in this picture are about the WLAN adapter (net1) which we don’t need at this point. Let’s hope this does not get in the way here. Will be interesting to see what’s different with the older firmware.
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Hi Sebastian,
Luckily I’ve had to work on a Mac that happens to work with PXE, keep in mind it’s a Mac Pro with 2 ethernet ports so net1 might be the other port.
This is the info I collected before I did the updates :
Model Identifier : MacPro6,1
Boot Rom Version : MP61.0116.B17
SMC Version : 2.20f18Ethernet card : Broadcom 57762-A0
Firmware : 57762-a1.15, 0x525fa2f2
Version : 10.1.11After I did the updates :
Model Identifier : MacPro6,1
Boot Rom Version : MP61.0116.B25
SMC Version : 2.20f18Ethernet card : Broadcom 57762-A0
Firmware : 57762-a1.15, 0x525fa2f2
Version : 10.2.0The updates did break PXE once again, the pictures below are from when the PXE was working as you requested.
Hope this helps !
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@sysadminatelier Interesting stuff you posted, thanks! After researching and reading for hours I am still missing a brilliant idea. Maybe we can take this from a different perspective.
- I found this in the iPXE forums where one had an issue with link down on another Broadcom NIC (BCM5764m). He was able to work around the issue by using a dump 100 MBit switch to connect the client to. Could you give that a try?
- The driver used within iPXE is
tg3. A similar one is included in the linux kernel. Please go back to George’s USB FOS… does the network come up properly on one of the updated/broken MACs?
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@sysadminatelier Did you get to test the stuff I posted last? @Warget Maybe you are keen to try this as well?
As well I am trying to revive the discussion on this in the iPXE forums, so hopefully we’ll push this a little further.
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@sysadminatelier Ok, I got some new advice from the iPXE devs. Debugging the actual driver issue won’t be easy and will therefore take too many round trips of “try this binary and report again”.
Nevertheless we ought to try out using the SNP binary (debug enabled -
DEBUG=snp:3,nii:3to start with). So find01_snp.efihere. Just give it a try and post pictures or video. Make sure when you take those to place the camera or phone on a stack of books in front of the screen so we have a good picture. -
Just cross-linking this here: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/10615/ipxe-booting-possibly-broken-on-os-x-sierra-update
