Solaris 10 Installation Guide for IBM BladeCenter Servers

6495236: Broadcom bnx Driver Conflicts With Solaris bge Driver on IBM BladeCenter LS41 Server

Description: The Broadcom bnx driver, Version 3.0.0, conflicts with the Solaris bge driver. This conflict also occurs with driver versions prior to Version 3.0.0.

The bnx driver provides support for the Broadcom NetXtreme II gigabit Ethernet interface, while the bge driver provides support for the Broadcom NetXtreme I gigabit Ethernet interface. The bnx driver does not encounter any problems if only two NetXtreme II interfaces are present. However, when four, or more interfaces are present on a system, such as the BladeCenter LS41 server with a Multiprocessor Expansion Unit (MPE) attached, failures occur in the form of system panics.

Workaround: Download and install the latest version of the Broadcom bnx driver for the Solaris OS.

For further instructions, see Troubleshooting the Solaris 10 11/06 Installation on IBM BladeCenter LS21, LS41, and HS21 Servers.