Uboot - e1000(Intel I210) driver fails to ping in Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4(Rpi CM4)

[Rengarajan]

Environment: Uboot v2025.07

Platform: Intel I210 connected to PCIe port of Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4(Rpi CM4). 

Issue: I am trying to use e1000.c driver available at https://elixir.bootlin.com/u-boot/v2025.07/source/drivers/net/e1000.c  in Uboot v2025.07. I enabled E1000 = y, CONFIG_PCI=y CONFIG_DM_PCI_COMPAT=y CONFIG_PCI_PNP=y CONFIG_ETH=y CONFIG_DM_ETH=y CONFIG_DM_ETH_PHY=y CONFIG_PHYLIB=y CONFIG_PHY_FIXED=y CONFIG_CMD_PCI=y CONFIG_CMD_NET=y in the make menuconfig. After flashing the image I could see e1000#0 enumerated properly.

However, during ping I am observing tx failure. In the transmit callback, we receive a packet, compute its physical address, and store it in a descriptor. The descriptor’s address is then flushed to RAM along with the packet so that the hardware can fetch it.

Post flushing the descriptor at that physical address, the PCIe controller attempts to read it and we get a PCIe Completer Abort in the PCIe trace. The error shows that PCIe is trying to access the physical address and fails after multiple retries. 

Is there any configuration in the CM4’s U-Boot make menuconfig that needs to be enabled to ensure proper PCIe memory access or DMA mapping for e1000 driver in Uboot. Attached the i210 driver pcie trace taken during the start of ping.

[IntelSupport]

Hello Rengarajan,

Thank you for reaching out to Intel.

As your query is relates to programming or using a custom board with Intel® Ethernet chips (I210), we’ve moved your concern to the dedicated Embedded Connectivity forum:

https://community.intel.com/t5/Embedded-Connectivity/Uboot-e1000-Intel-I210-driver-fails-to-ping-in-Raspberry-Pi/m-p/1710484#M5840

Our dedicated team will assist you further from there.

Best regards,

Shankith K P

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Diego_INTEL]

Hello @Rengarajan,

Thank you for contacting Intel Embedded Community.

Raspberry Pi is not an embedded product, you may try downloading the driver from this link:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000/files/

You can try consulting with Raspberry Pi community regarding the compatibility with the i210.

Best regards,

@Diego_INTEL

[Rengarajan]

Hi @Diego_INTEL 

Thanks for your reply. Can you please share the Uboot driver and release packages for e1000 driver.

Regards,

Rengarajan S

[Rengarajan]

Hi Diego,

Can you please share the environment details in which the Uboot e1000 driver was tested so that we can use the same platform on our end. 

Regards,

Rengarajan S