[Pkg-iscsi-maintainers] Bug#850057: iscsistart -N skips offload NICs causing boot to fail

[Andrew Patterson]

Package: open-iscsi
Version: 2.0.874-1

The debian initramfs uses the IBFT support in iscsistart to log
into the root volume. The initramfs script uses iscsistart -N to
bring up the NICs before logging in with iscsstart -b. This
process works fine when using non-offload NICs, but fails when
using NICs using the bnx2, bnx2x, cxgb3, and cxgb4 drivers due to
the following code in
utils/fwparam_ibft/fw_entry.c:fw_setup_nics():

        list_for_each_entry(context, &targets, list) {
            /* if it is a offload nic ignore it */
            if (!net_get_transport_name_from_netdev(context->iface,
                                transport))
                continue


Which does a lookup in the table in usr/iscsi_net_util.c

        static struct iscsi_net_driver net_drivers[] = {
            {"cxgb3", "cxgb3i" },
            {"cxgb4", "cxgb4i" },
            {"bnx2", "bnx2i" },
            {"bnx2x", "bnx2i"},
            {NULL, NULL}
        };


to see if -N should skip this NIC.

There is a discussion of this issue at:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?_escaped_fragment_=msg/open-iscsi/PsT65Z4Gx3I/GUObdlVvCQAJ#!msg/open-iscsi/PsT65Z4Gx3I/GUObdlVvCQAJ

-- 
Andrew Patterson
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise