(Please provide enough information to help the Debian
maintainers evaluate the report efficiently - e.g., by filling
in the sections below.)

Boot method: USB
Image version: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current/amd64/iso-dvd/firmware-11.3.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso
Date: 5/28/2022

Machine: Asus AMD system with an 8 core FX-8350 CPU and Asus PEB-10G/57811-1S 10GbE SFP+ Network Adapter
Partitions: N/A


Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot:           [O]
Detect network card:    [0]
Configure network:      [E]
Detect media:           [0]
Load installer modules: [E]
Clock/timezone setup:   [O]
User/password setup:    [O]
Detect hard drives:     [O]
Partition hard drives:  [O]
Install base system:    [O]
Install tasks:          [O]
Install boot loader:    [O]
Overall install:        [E]

Comments/Problems:

       Two of my servers are having bizarre problems after upgrading to Debian Bullseye.  After attempting numerous fixes, I decided to wipe the systems and do a fresh install.  I did a fresh install of the first from a netinst thumb drive, but the .iso does not contain the bnx2c drivers needed for the ASUS PEB-10G/57811-1S 10GbE SFP+ Network Adapters used by both systems.  I tried adding what I thought to be the correct non-free drivers, but I still got errors about the bnx2x drivers and the interface shows no carrier.  Since no carrier is detected on the interface, no LAN or internet access is possible.  The system was effectively dead, although it boots up and of course I have local console access.

       After several different approaches, I changed from the netinst image to a full non-free image.  It still would not properly load the bnx2x drivers.  I tried downloading all six bnx2x e1, e1h, and e2 release 7.13.15.0 and 7.13.21.0 firmware files and adding them to the initram image.  It no longer complains about missing files, but it doesn't activate the NIC, either.  I tried compiling the driver from source, but I get a cc1 error saying the code model kernel does not support PIC mode.  I have tried numerous modifications to the make file, but I have not been able to eliminate the error.

       The only thing I spot from dmesg that seems possibly related is:

[    1.420748] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control
[    1.433467] r8169 0000:0b:00.0 eth0: RTL8168f/8111f, 50:46:5d:65:15:9c, XID 480, IRQ 39
[    1.433469] r8169 0000:0b:00.0 eth0: jumbo features [frames: 9194 bytes, tx checksumming: ko]
...
[    1.458361] r8169 0000:0b:00.0 enp11s0: renamed from eth0
[    1.465675] bnx2x: disagrees about version of symbol module_layout
...
[   12.976323] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: firmware: failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw (-2)
[   12.976478] firmware_class: See https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware for information about missing firmware
[   12.976632] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: Direct firmware load for rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw failed with error -2
[   12.976636] r8169 0000:0b:00.0: Unable to load firmware rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw (-2)
[   12.977326] RTL8211E Gigabit Ethernet r8169-0-b00:00: attached PHY driver [RTL8211E Gigabit Ethernet] (mii_bus:phy_addr=r8169-0-b00:00, irq=IGNORE)
[   13.046445] r8169 0000:0b:00.0 enp11s0: Link is Down




Please make sure that any installation logs that you think would
be useful are attached to this report. Please compress large
files using gzip.

     Here is the syslog created during installation.

     I filed report 1012859 to the Debian BTS over a year ago. Nothing
has been done so far, and I have one cripped system and one dead system
that needs to be upgraded to the most recent version, but I can't really
proceed until the proper files get included into the Debian distro.  Can
someone please help?

[Just a random passer-by that might have an idea?]

It looks to me like you are missing the firmware-realtek[1][2]
(non-free) package?!

[1] https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/firmware-realtek
[2] https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/firmware-realtek

If you haven't already tried, I'd suggest that you try a clean bookworm
install from ISO. FWIW bookworm now includes a separate
"non-free-firmware" repo that is enabled by default. So the official
installer should "just work".

If not, then I would suggest opening a new bug against the current
installer. In the meantime, try manually installing the package (e.g.
copy the deb via a USB stick).

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Jeremy

     No, I am not missing it.  The package is broken in Bullseye. The
firmware is there, but does not work.  It worked just fine in Buster,
but when I upgraded to Bullseye, the 10G NIC completely quit working. 
It's been over a year, so I don't recall everything I did, but I spent
many, many hours trying to get the new firmware working, and many more
hours trying to extract the firmware from the oldstable package, and
then quite a few more hours trying  to compile from source, but nothing
worked.  I could not even get the source code to compile.

     The bottom line is the firmware from the Buster non-free distro
works perfectly well, but noone has come forth with a fix for Bullseye,
and I have no reason to believe the firmware from Bookworm will work. 
The NIC is an Asus PEB-10G/57811-1S 10GbE SFP+ Network Adapter which
employs a BCM 57811S controller.
     I can try, but I really would not be well advised to do so until I
can get the dead system working again.

Dear Leslie,

I'm sorry no one noticed your bug.  Reply follows inline:

Jeremy, thank you for following up on this bug!  This brought the bug to
my attention :)

Leslie Rhorer <lesrhorer@siliconventures.net> writes:

Given your intention to upgrade from buster to bullseye, here is what
you can try (please read to the end of this email first, because an
alternative method is a better use of your time):

1a. Enable bullseye-backports (non-free), and 'apt install -t
bullseye-backports firmware-linux firmware-misc-nonfree' which is
currently 20230210-4~bpo11+1

2a. Reboot

3a. If both your NICs work, then it's a firmware bug.  If this is the
case, please report a bug against firmware-linux-nonfree 20210315-3.


Maybe nobody knows that this specific hardware is broken?  It may be
that the Asus PEB-10G/57811-1S has some hardware quirks that Broadcom
doesn't know about.  In your original bug log you'll notice this snippet

which is the Realtek one, Gibabit, RJ45 copper.  I wonder if this one is
a completely different NIC built into your motherboard.  ie: the
historically very buggy Realtek 8111E?

Alternatively, if the 10GbE SFP+ PCIe adapter NIC uses a Realtek for
gigabit PHY, then the nature of the bug could be that both both Realtek
and Broadcom broke your NIC (either in the firmware on in the driver, or
both).

Jeremy is right about how bookworm includes non-free-firmware by
default, and also that the state of your hardware with bookworm should
be tested first.

The best use of your time will be to test with live media (USB or DVD).
If you'd like to have a GUI for your test, please choose a variant you
recognise and are comfortable with.  The "standard" flavour is CLI only,
which--alternatively--might be what you want (it's a smaller download ).

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/

If the problem still exists in bookworm, then it needs to be fixed in
bookworm before the fix can be backported to buster, and the live media
is the fastest way to test this.

Regards,
Nicholas

     OK, I went ahead and did a fresh install of Bookworm and the 10G
NIC works.  I went ahead and upgraded the Bullseye system to bookworm,
and everything seems to work as well as ever, but I still don't have the
10G NIC working on that system.  The driver for the card is bnx2x, but
the card currently does not even show up on the system.

Leslie Rhorer <lesrhorer@siliconventures.net> wrote:

So I close this bug.

Apparently there was an issue with the firmware in Bullseye, but since the issue is already fixed in Bookworm, there is nothing more to do here.


Thanks for reporting anyway!


Holger

reopen 1012859
thanks

Leslie, please retain me in CC for your replies.

Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org> writes:

Yes, that's the "crippled system".  The above quote is truncated, and
there is a second server that Leslie Rhorer previously described as
"dead".  In the last email to this bug, the reporter's second sentence,
about the second system was:

So there are two affected systems.  For the record, the specific NIC
that uses bnx2x but that isn't working is this one:

Leslie, does your server with this NIC work with up-to-date firmware
from bookworm?  How about bookworm-backports?  And in combination with
the kernel from bookworm-backports?

Alternatively, would you please test with a TESTING image for the
upcoming Debian 13 (trixie) release?

https://www.debian.org/CD/live/

Holger, do you have another source of information that shows that this
was fixed for the reporter's second server?  In the absence of this,
this bug should not be closed.

Cheers,
Nicholas

Hi all,

Am 2. Juni 2025 01:11:26 MESZ schrieb Nicholas D Steeves <sten@debian.org>:

Leslie already confirmed, that in a fresh Bookworm install all is fine.
Testing with a Trixie ISO might be good, yes.

So the only issue is on a Buster system, which was upgraded to Bullseye, and is then broken.
That's an issue with oldoldstable and oldstable, which I think is unlikely to be fixed.

Did I miss something in my summary?

No, no further information apart from this bug.
Sorry, if I closed that too early.


Holger