# Problems with Broadcom Gigabit NIC



## roddierod (Apr 25, 2009)

I got a new motherboar that has 2 broadcom gigbit nics on it. These things are causing me all sorts of problem.

1) IF I try to use the they freeze up the system on boot when the system tries to bring them up.

2) So I installed a Intel Nic. Now when I try to go online for anything I get this error message:


```
bge0: PHY read timed out (phy 1, reg 4, val Oxfffffffff)
```

the reg value changes but it is usuall 1, 0, 4, 5 or 25. Once this starts it does not stop and I have to shutdown the system. The problem is the broadcom is not connected I even placed


```
if_bge_load="NO"
```

in loader.conf!!

There is NO BIOS option to disable the onboard NICS. I've looked repeatedly.

The board is a Supermicro H8DCE-HTe.

Any suggestions on this one!


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## Lowell (Apr 25, 2009)

The loader.conf entry will only matter if you were loading the driver from a kernel module.  You must have the driver built into your kernel (perhaps you are running an uncustomized kernel?).  You could ignore those bge devices more completely if you were running a kernel that didn't have them.

If you are going to bother with a customized kernel, you could update the whole system to see if the bge driver has been updated to behave better with your devices.


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## roddierod (Apr 25, 2009)

Thanks for the reply.

When I first booted the machine. I'm pretty sure I had a custom kernel with only nfe as the NIC in it. Then I switched to generic to try and get the networking.

So I'll give it another shot by building a custom kernel.


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## DrJ (Apr 25, 2009)

Sounds like you have another NIC, Rod.  That's an fxp, I assume?

There has been quite some chatter on the lists about bge recently.  You might want to have a look.


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## roddierod (Apr 25, 2009)

Yup, fxp. Finally got everything and running.

All I had to do was rebuild the kernel.


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## DrJ (Apr 25, 2009)

I'd still keep an eye on the lists -- bge is too important not to get it fixed.  I recall there were em issues a while ago, and those were ironed out pretty quickly.

On to the fans now!


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