[Guide] How to rescue intel netcard, if broken eeprom as modify to smalltree under Linux.

[NathanYung]

[hackintoshi] How to rescue intel netcard, if broken eeprom as modify to smalltree under Linux.

Thanks to this guide, I made 2 intel 10Gbe worked.

Modify retail Intel 10GbE NICs to use Small Tree macOS Drivers

FOLKS, THIS WILL WRITE TO THE CARD EEPROM AND INCORRECT USAGE COULD RENDER YOUR CARD USELESS. THESE STEPS ARE SPECIFIC TO MY INTEL X520-DA2 10GbE CARD ONLY. HOWEVER, WITH SOME WORK THEY CAN BE ADAPTED TO WORK ON MOST INTEL NETWORK CARDS, BOTH 1GbE and 10GbE. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. Intel's...

forums.macrumors.com

this guide must under UEFI boot.

As I modify my IBM X3550 M4, first port of on board i350 4 port, failed, oh no…….

Port 1 disappeared!!!

I searched lots of websites, no use, until I found this on IBM LENOVO SITE.

Page Not Found - Lenovo Support US

support.lenovo.com

After lots of tried, I did it, port 1 is back.( stupid reason)



Commands

1) eeupdate64e.efi

Find your netcard number

My i350 is 3

2)
eeupdate64e.efi -nic=NIC# -d IBM_FOD_i350_2-4port_Copper_NCSI_1-64a_80861521_LEDupdate.eep

Keypoint

NIC# means 3. (In my case)

Attention not NIC3, stupid like me, failed several times, finally I understand it just only the number,

eeprom, use my backup, change .bin to .eep
Don’t use the eeprom file download from IBM.

mine

eeupdate64e.efi -nic=3 -d ibm_i350.eep

Done

3) eeupdate64e.efi -nic=NIC# -eepromver

Check again.

One last thing

-d, must use it to skip MAC address, it’s very important, or you will jump into more trouble.

NathanYung

Now I need help to find out exactly to modify my onboard i350.

 

[NathanYung]

attachThumb851597
Renew:

How to restore eeprom, I wrote above, but one important thing, binary file from ethtool command is smaller than real, cause some problems.

Here is my recommendation :
Boot to UEFI as I wrote, then follow these steps.

1)Eeupdate64e.efi -nic=X /DUMP
X is your card number.

Dump file will be MAC.EEP
MAC=mac address.

Backup this file.
Rollback is simple.

Just use UEFI.

Remember when rollback, -d must add to prevent write other MAC.

I350 4 port, just modify one port, make sure everything is fine, then do again with the other three ports.