Unable to Configure Intel X540-AT2 Network Card on Proxmox VE 8.2

[Remis]

Hello everyone,

I'm encountering an issue while installing Proxmox on a server rented from OVH. I'm using the latest "Proxmox VE 8.2 ISO Installer" and the server is equipped with an "Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller 10-Gigabit X540-AT2" network card (which has two Ethernet ports).

During installation, Proxmox detects another USB network card (used by OVH), which is then configured as the primary network card.

Unfortunately, the Intel X540 network card is not detected at all. Here are the logs during the first boot of Proxmox after installation:

The network card seems to be partially detected:

However, it does not appear as if the resource mapping could be established:

To try to solve this issue, I downloaded and compiled the latest drivers for this network card from Intel's site: "https://downloadmirror.intel.com/832293/ixgbe-5.21.5.tar.gz". The installation seems to have completed successfully (i guess):

=

However, when I try to load these new drivers, I encounter another error:

> Software semaphore SMBI between device drivers not granted, HH Init failed: -16

I've seen on the forum that many users are facing issues with these X540 network cards on Proxmox 8.2, but no clear solution has emerged other than replacing the network card, which is not an option for me as I don't own the server.

For reference, here are some similar discussions:
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/intel-x540-t2-adapter-removed.94939/"
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/dual-intel-x540-10gbe-network-ethernet-not-showing-up.139861/"
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/p...xgbe-driver-for-x540-t2-dual-port-card.18014/"
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/pve-6-0-7-ixgbe-firmware-errors.58592/"
- "https://www.reddit.com/r/Proxmox/comments/1gj17wq/intel_x540at2_configuration/?show=original"
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/intel-x540-at2-configuration.156879/"

I can provide access to the dedicated server and its KVM for debugging if needed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[Kingneutron]

Good luck, you have an uphill slog here. You may have to try working directly with the ixgbe kernel driver maintainers.

I had a similar issue on my qotom firewall appliance for months before they finally fixed the X553 10 GbE SFP+ regression. Had to use an upgraded PVE7 -> 8 install with the old 5.15 kernel as a workaround. I was ready to shell out some $$ for a bug bounty/fix

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/intel-x553-sfp-ixgbe-no-go-on-pve8.135129/
^ Maybe not relevant for your case, but that's the history

 

[Remis]

The funny part of the story is that the network card is detected under Proxmox 7.

 

[Kingneutron]

You could try doing what I did then, pin the old kernel and upgrade everything else (after doing a full backup)

 

[t.lamprecht]

It might be indeed require some fixes and collaboration with upstream kernel devs, or if we're lucky it's already fixed in a newer kernel, and we can just backport these to our kernel.

Can you try the proxmox-kernel-6.11 series to see if it works there? If not, trying out latest upstream by booting some bleeding edge distro, e.g. arch Linux, would be good. If it works there we got already some good info and can check kernel git log for potential fixes or otherwise use that info to report to upstream (they normally only care about latest mainline kernel).

 

[Remis]

On the latest version of Ubuntu 24 LTS, the network card works. However, on the latest version of Debian/Proxmox, it doesn't. I have already tried the latest Proxmox 6.11-pve kernel without success. The only kernel that worked is 5.19.17-2-pve.

Here is the visual proof of my despair :

 

[hstende]

Looks like the driver is not signed.

Hello everyone,

I'm encountering an issue while installing Proxmox on a server rented from OVH. I'm using the latest "Proxmox VE 8.2 ISO Installer" and the server is equipped with an "Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller 10-Gigabit X540-AT2" network card (which has two Ethernet ports).

During installation, Proxmox detects another USB network card (used by OVH), which is then configured as the primary network card.

Unfortunately, the Intel X540 network card is not detected at all. Here are the logs during the first boot of Proxmox after installation:

The network card seems to be partially detected:

However, it does not appear as if the resource mapping could be established:

To try to solve this issue, I downloaded and compiled the latest drivers for this network card from Intel's site: "https://downloadmirror.intel.com/832293/ixgbe-5.21.5.tar.gz". The installation seems to have completed successfully (i guess):

=

However, when I try to load these new drivers, I encounter another error:

> Software semaphore SMBI between device drivers not granted, HH Init failed: -16

I've seen on the forum that many users are facing issues with these X540 network cards on Proxmox 8.2, but no clear solution has emerged other than replacing the network card, which is not an option for me as I don't own the server.

For reference, here are some similar discussions:
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/intel-x540-t2-adapter-removed.94939/"
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/dual-intel-x540-10gbe-network-ethernet-not-showing-up.139861/"
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/p...xgbe-driver-for-x540-t2-dual-port-card.18014/"
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/pve-6-0-7-ixgbe-firmware-errors.58592/"
- "https://www.reddit.com/r/Proxmox/comments/1gj17wq/intel_x540at2_configuration/?show=original"
- "https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/intel-x540-at2-configuration.156879/"

I can provide access to the dedicated server and its KVM for debugging if needed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Looks like the module you build need signing
https://wiki.debian.org/SecureBoot

 

[Remis]

Looks like the driver is not signed.

Looks like the module you build need signing
https://wiki.debian.org/SecureBoot

Secure Boot is disabled, so normally this shouldn't be an issue (if I'm not mistaken).

 

[Remis]

It might be indeed require some fixes and collaboration with upstream kernel devs, or if we're lucky it's already fixed in a newer kernel, and we can just backport these to our kernel.

Can you try the proxmox-kernel-6.11 series to see if it works there? If not, trying out latest upstream by booting some bleeding edge distro, e.g. arch Linux, would be good. If it works there we got already some good info and can check kernel git log for potential fixes or otherwise use that info to report to upstream (they normally only care about latest mainline kernel).

I figured the issue must be with the 6.x kernel, since the card gets detected on Proxmox 7.4 with the 5.19 kernel. But then I installed Ubuntu from the official ISO, and surprise, surprise: the network card works perfectly fine, even with Ubuntu 24.04's 6.8.0-49-generic kernel. The more I dig into this, the more I feel like I'm getting lost in a never-ending maze.

 

[alexskysilk]

I dont know if its any different then the intel download link, but I did get this nic to work with pve8.2. I used this src: https://github.com/intel/ethernet-linux-ixgbe/releases

and before you ask, it was a customers install and I no longer have access to it

 

[Remis]

That's exactly where I downloaded the drivers from, thanks for the confirmation!