What’s in this Version

Checksum Offload Changes for the iether and igelan Gigabit Ethernet Drivers. The default for transmit side Checksum Offload (CKO) will be OFF (disabled). This matches the default for receive side CKO which has also been set to OFF (disabled) since the May 2005 release. This gives you the flexibility of setting the CKO performance feature as you want.

Setting the driver CKO options:

Recommended: To set the CKO options permanently (so they’re saved across reboots), edit the following values in the /etc/rc.config.d/hp<driver>conf file (where <driver> can be iether or igelan):

IEther example:

HP_IETHER_SEND_CKO and
HP_IETHER_RECV_CKO and set them to ON or OFF

Igelan example:

HP_IGELAN_SEND_CKO and
HP_IGELAN_RECV_CKO and set them to ON or OFF

To determine the current CKO settings, enter the following command:

lanadmin -x cko ppa

Optional: If desired, you can also use the lanadmin -X command to temporarily set these values; but if you use the lanadmin command, your settings will not be saved across a reboot. The exact lanadmin commands are as follows (note that the -X is capitalized in these commands):

lanadmin -X send_cko_on ppa
lanadmin -X recv_cko_on ppa

Please refer to the lanadmin man page for details of these CKO options.

PCI-X Error Handling improvements. The PCI-X Error Handling feature provides a system with improved fault-tolerance. PCI-X Error Handling allows an HP-UX system to avoid a Machine Check Abort (MCA) or a High Priority Machine Check (HPMC), if a PCI-X error occurs (for example, a parity error). Without the PCI-X Error Handling feature installed, PCI-X slots are set in hardfail mode. If a PCI-X error occurs when a slot is in hardfail mode, an MCA or HPMC will occur, then the system will crash. When the PCI-X Error Handling feature is installed, the PCI-X slots containing I/O cards that support PCI-X Error Handling will be set in softfail mode. If a PCI-X error occurs when a slot is in softfail mode, the slot will be isolated from further I/O, the corresponding device driver will report the error, and the driver will be suspended. The olrad command and the Attention Button can be used to online recover, restoring the slot, card, and driver to a usable state. As of June 2006, the iether and igelan Gigabit Ethernet drivers on both HP-UX 11i v2 and 11i v1 support PCI-X Error Handling when the prerequisite PCIErrorHandling-00 bundle is also installed on the system. The PCI-X Error Handling-00 bundle is NOT part of the Operating Environment and is an enhancement or extra functionality that needs to be added even if you’ve already loaded the June 2006 OE media. The PCI-X Error Handling-00 bundle is a selectable feature that is located on the SPK (software pack) DVD.

HP-UX 11i v1 -based iether and igelan Gigabit Ethernet drivers are enhanced in June 2006 to support 64-bit MIB statistics, but prerequisite patch PHNE_33704 (or later) must also be installed. Core LAN patch PHNE_33704 is available for downloading on the HP Information Technology Resource Center (ITRC) at: http://www.itrc.hp.com. Select “patch database,” and search for the needed patch number. If not already registered, you can register for free on the ITRC home page.