i210: eeupdate Error C86A2029 (checksum update failing)

[madfrisbee]

We have i210 chips with the SST25VF040B 4 M-bit SPI flash.

Using eeupdate (Linux eeupdate64e) from 2017 (eeupdate v5.30.25.06) works when updating the MAC address (using 'eeupdate64e /mac=001122334455 /nic=3', for example).

But when I use eeupdate from 2025  (v5.43.08.00) to update the MAC, it fails:

=============

Using: Intel (R) PRO Network Connections SDK v2.40.5
EEUPDATE v5.40.05.03
Copyright (C) 1995 - 2023 Intel Corporation
Intel (R) Confidential and not for general distribution.

Driverless Mode

NIC Bus Dev Fun Vendor-Device Branding string
=== === === === ============= =================================================
1 1 00 00 8086-1533 Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection
2 2 00 00 8086-1533 Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection
3 3 00 00 8086-1533 Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection
4 4 00 00 8086-1533 Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection
5 5 00 00 8086-0D9F Intel(R) Ethernet Controller (3) I225-IT
6 244 00 00 8086-124D Intel(R) Ethernet Connection E823-L for SFP
7 244 00 01 8086-124D Intel(R) Ethernet Connection E823-L for SFP
8 244 00 02 8086-124D Intel(R) Ethernet Connection E823-L for SFP
9 244 00 03 8086-124D Intel(R) Ethernet Connection E823-L for SFP

3: Updating Mac Address to 001122334455...Done.
3: Updating Checksum and CRCs...EEPROM Manageability Checksum update failed. Error C86A2029 - Failed to read EEPROM or EEPROM image.

=============

Note that the newer eeupdate works with an empty flash.  It's when we want to change the content that it fails.

Using /CALCCHKSUM does not help.

Using /TEST confirms the checksum is incorrect.

Is this a known problem?  Is there a workaround?

Also I get the same failure if the iqvlinux.ko driver is installed.  The output in the original post is in "driverless" mode (without the driver installed).  I don't see any difference with or without the iqvlinux driver.

Like I said above, the older eeupdate is able to update a MAC address without the checksum update error.

I also tried some recent eeupdate releases.  It looks like the version from 2023-04-27 works (v5.39.32.05).  I have to confirm that it actually wrote the correct values to the eeprom, but I did not get the checksum error.

It looks like the version of eeupdate from 2023-12-22 (v5.40.05.03) fails with the same "CRCs...EEPROM Manageability Checksum update failed" error. 

[Diego_INTEL]

Hello @madfrisbee,

Thank you for contacting Intel Embedded Community.

Also, thank you very much for your detailed explanation, you are right, there is some issue in the newer version of the tool.

The issue has been addressed and the engineering team is working on this to fix it.

Hopefully it can be fixed in the next update, but it may be good to keep the older versions as you did just in case.

Best regards,

@Diego_INTEL 

[madfrisbee]

Thank you.

Some of the older releases are missing functionality we need.  I think 2023-04-27 (v5.39.32.05) might be okay for our current needs (but not 100% test coverage done here yet).  But the 2017 version (v5.30.25.06) definitely does not.

I'll try to watch for the update.  A post here would be helpful.  And any information on a workaround in the mean time if there is one.

[madfrisbee]

By the way, the original posting of this question was in the 'Ethernet Products' forum:

https://community.intel.com/t5/Ethernet-Products/eeupdate-Error-C86A2029-checksum-update-failing/m-p/1696179

There is a little extra banter about this issue there.

At the request of an Intel representative, I moved it here to the 'Embedded Connectivity' forum.  This is where I will post updates.  Hint: there was a new release of the Quartzville tools recently - I'll be testing that and reporting results here.