wake on lan redux

Just like my other wake on lan experience, I spent about eight hours debugging why wake on lan wouldn't work on my newly built Fedora 12 system. I went through a bunch of threads and learned something about sleep states in Linux. I also learned that ACPI has supplanted APM. ACPI is now being replaced by /sys interfaces to power states.

Problem
The network card port was getting disabled by Fedora 12 for wake on lan when the box was shutdown.

Observations
I noticed that the status of the network activity led on the network card went dark when I shut the machine down.  This means that my network card was not active and listening for incoming WOL requests.  If I removed the power cable and plugged the power cable back in, the traffic light blipped on a couple times.  For some reason then, Linux was shutting off or disabling a WOL state for the network card when I would shutdown the machine.

Resolution

After much googling and testing, I found that the sleep state for my network card was disabled.  My network card's identification was found in lspci output:

[sodo@computer ~]$ lspci -tv | grep 1c
           +-1c.0-[01]----00.0  Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express

I then correlated the pci card info to acpitool output.  I found my card (1c) in the output below at #4:

[sodo@computer ~]$ acpitool -w
   Device S-state   Status   Sysfs node
  ---------------------------------------
  1. DWN1   S5 *disabled  pci:0000:03:00.0
  2. PE2X   S5 *disabled  pci:0000:02:00.3
  3. PEX3   S5 *disabled  pci:0000:00:03.0
  4. SBEX   S5 *disabled  pci:0000:00:1c.0
  5. COMP   S5 *disabled  pci:0000:00:1e.0

Seeing it as disabled, I could reenable it by using this command:

[sodo@computer ~]$ acpitool -W 4
   Device S-state   Status   Sysfs node
  ---------------------------------------
  1. DWN1   S5 *disabled  pci:0000:03:00.0
  2. PE2X   S5 *disabled  pci:0000:02:00.3
  3. PEX3   S5 *disabled  pci:0000:00:03.0
  4. SBEX   S5 *enabled  pci:0000:00:1c.0
  5. COMP   S5 *disabled  pci:0000:00:1e.0

I finally resolved my WakeOnLan issue by creating a script to do three things:
1) remove my network card module
modprobe -r tg3
2) enabling sleep states
acpitool -W 1 (and also 2-5)
3) call "shutdown -h now"

The script is simple enough, though it is a bit of a pain to manually call it.  I put an alias to "sd" in my .bashrc:
[sodo@computer ~]$ sudo cat /usr/sbin/sd
modprobe -r tg3
# sleep state for Broadcom card (#4 from acpitool output)
acpitool -W 4
/usr/sbin/shutdown -h now

A variation on the script for my new i7 box:
#!/bin/bash
sudo ethtool -s p5p1 wol g
for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
do 
   sudo acpitool -W $i
done
sudo shutdown -h now

A second variation for my latest i9 box (note that I don't need to enable all sleep states, just the one for the card.  Not sure why I thought I needed to enable all sleep states, I was probably just being lazy):
#!/bin/bash
# enable wak-on-lan
sudo ethtool -s enp10s0 wol g

# enable sleep state for Realtek card (#20 from acpitool output)
acpitool -W 20 

/usr/sbin/shutdown -h now

Previous tries
try acpi=off (in grub.conf)
get this error: nvrm failed to register with acpi subsystem
try adding mem to /sys/power/state (in rc.local)
didn't work
try init=0 (each time you shutdown)
didn't work
now that edits are done to rc.local, try resetting card with Broadcom Diagnostic CD
didn't work
try just hitting power button
didn't work

Commands
ethtool eth0
ethtool -i eth0
ethtool -s eth0 wol d
ethtool -s eth0 wol g

WakeOnLan options description
wol pumbagsd...
Sets Wake-on-LAN options. Not all devices support this. The argument to this option is a string of

characters specifying which options to enable.
p Wake on phy activity
u Wake on unicast messages
m Wake on multicast messages
b Wake on broadcast messages
a Wake on ARP
g Wake on MagicPacket(tm)
s Enable SecureOn(tm) password for MagicPacket(tm)
d Disable (wake on nothing). This option clears all previous options.

acpitool -w

[root@ogre ~]$ cat /proc/acpi/sleep
S0 S4 S5

[root@ogre ~]$ cat /sys/power/state
disk
[root@ogre /]# acpitool -w
Device S-state Status Sysfs node
---------------------------------------
1. DWN1 S5 enabled pci:0000:03:00.0
2. PE2X S5 enabled pci:0000:02:00.3
3. PEX3 S5 enabled pci:0000:00:03.0
4. SBEX S5 enabled pci:0000:00:1c.0
5. COMP S5 enabled pci:0000:00:1e.0

[root@ogre ~]# cat /proc/acpi/wakeup
Device S-state Status Sysfs node
DWN1 S5 enabled pci:0000:03:00.0
PE2X S5 enabled pci:0000:02:00.3
PEX3 S5 enabled pci:0000:00:03.0
SBEX S5 enabled pci:0000:00:1c.0
COMP S5 enabled pci:0000:00:1e.0

[root@ogre ~]# sh -c "echo COMP > /proc/acpi/wakeup"

[root@ogre /]# lspci -tv
-[0000:00]-+-00.0 Intel Corporation 5000V Chipset Memory Controller Hub
+-02.0-[02-06]--+-00.0-[03-05]--+-00.0-[04]----00.0 3ware Inc 9650SE SATA-II RAID PCIe
\-01.0-[05]--
\-00.3-[06]--
+-03.0-[07]----00.0 nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GT
+-10.0 Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset FSB Registers
+-10.1 Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset FSB Registers
+-10.2 Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset FSB Registers
+-11.0 Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset Reserved Registers
+-13.0 Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset Reserved Registers
+-15.0 Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset FBD Registers
+-16.0 Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset FBD Registers
+-1c.0-[01]----00.0 Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
+-1d.0 Intel Corporation 631xESB/632xESB/3100 Chipset UHCI USB Controller #1
+-1d.1 Intel Corporation 631xESB/632xESB/3100 Chipset UHCI USB Controller #2
+-1d.2 Intel Corporation 631xESB/632xESB/3100 Chipset UHCI USB Controller #3
+-1d.3 Intel Corporation 631xESB/632xESB/3100 Chipset UHCI USB Controller #4
+-1d.7 Intel Corporation 631xESB/632xESB/3100 Chipset EHCI USB2 Controller
+-1e.0-[08]--
+-1f.0 Intel Corporation 631xESB/632xESB/3100 Chipset LPC Interface Controller
\-1f.1 Intel Corporation 631xESB/632xESB IDE Controller


[root@ogre ~]# lsmod grep tg
tg3 105476 0
[root@ogre ~]# modinfo tg3
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.31.12-174.2.22.fc12.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/tg3.ko
firmware: tigon/tg3_tso5.bin
firmware: tigon/tg3_tso.bin
firmware: tigon/tg3.bin
version: 3.99
license: GPL
description: Broadcom Tigon3 ethernet driver
author: David S. Miller (davem@redhat.com) and Jeff Garzik (jgarzik@pobox.com)
srcversion: 5B5CB8F28F8498838A4DBA7
alias: pci:v0000106Bd00001645sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v0000173Bd000003EAsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v0000173Bd000003EBsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v0000173Bd000003E9sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v0000173Bd000003E8sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00001148d00004500sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00001148d00004400sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000168Csv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001694sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001690sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001692sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001699sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001689sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001688sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001680sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001681sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000165Bsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001684sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001698sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001713sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001712sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d000016DDsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000166Bsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000166Asv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001679sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001678sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001669sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001668sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000167Fsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001693sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000169Bsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000169Asv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001674sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001673sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000167Bsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001672sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000167Asv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d000016FEsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d000016FDsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d000016F7sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001601sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001600sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000167Esv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000167Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000167Csv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001677sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001676sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000165Asv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001659sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001658sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000166Esv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001649sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000170Esv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000170Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000169Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000169Csv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001696sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d000016C7sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d000016C6sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d000016A8sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d000016A7sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d000016A6sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000165Esv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000165Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001654sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001653sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d0000164Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001648sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001647sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001646sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001645sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v000014E4d00001644sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends:
vermagic: 2.6.31.12-174.2.22.fc12.x86_64 SMP mod_unload
parm: tg3_debug:Tigon3 bitmapped debugging message enable value (int)

References
HOWTO: Set your system up for Wake On LAN (WOL)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Configuration_and_Power_Interface
http://acpi.sourceforge.net/documentation/sleep.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1309820
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archive/index.php/t-63763.html
http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au/lxr/source/Documentation/power/tricks.txt
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=234588&page=3
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=814939&page=4
https://askubuntu.com/questions/654820/how-to-find-pci-address-of-an-ethernet-interface
http://ask.xmodulo.com/network-card-driver-name-version-linux.html

Fedora List of Kernel Parameters
NOTE: The full list of kernel options is in the file /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt, which is installed with the kernel-doc package.

how to determine sid of a user

Nice VB script here from Daniel Petri:
http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=21332

reprinted here for convenience

' www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread.php?p=61469#post61469

Const HKEY_USERS = &H80000003


strComputer = "."  '<-- name of remote computer

Set objWMIService = GetObject( _
  "winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" _
  & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set Users = objWMIService.InstancesOf ("Win32_ComputerSystem")

 for each User in Users
   logonname = User.UserName
   strUsr    = Split(logonname,"\")(1)
   strDomain = Split(logonname,"\")(0)
   exit For
 next

set colAccounts = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
       ("select * From Win32_UserAccount where " _
       & "name = '" & strUsr & "' AND domain = '" & strDomain & "'")

 For each objAccount in colAccounts
   strSID = objAccount.SID       
   exit For
 Next


wsh.echo "HKU-path for", logonname, vbNewLine & "HKEY_USERS\" & strSID & "\..."

OUTPUT
C:\WINDOWS>user.vbs
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

HKU-path for DOMAIN\sodo
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-11-7177352686-8047241297-547765659-67771

Fedora 12, x86-64 first impressions

I recently installed Fedora 12, x86-64 on my Dell SC1430. I will say that the new ext4 filesystem is fast, fast. And the kernel loads in about 30 seconds for me:
bootchart.jpg

However, Fedora's latest disappoints with a bunch of minor, yet completely annoying bugs. It's kind of like the Chinese "Death of One Thousand Cuts."

CUT 1
CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE no longer works
This convenient method of restarting X was disabled for the fat-fingering newbie. Maybe Fedora should have a multicolored penguin (a Mac-Linux hybrid) as its' logo from now on?

At least it was easily solved.

CUT 2
Virtual consoles don't work
You know..the CTRL-ALT-F[1-6] keys. Maybe this one is related to my NVidia card. Still, I'm using the nouveau driver, not the NVidia driver. Don't know why this should have broken.

CUT 3
Nautilus browser doesn't load
I found this error in xsession-errors:
LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library ./mozilla/plugins/nppdf.so [./mozilla/plugins/nppdf.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32]

Turns out, the install of Adobe Reader (32-bit) caused this error, which in turn, stopped Nautilus from loading. Yanking out the Reader resolved the issue. Maybe this isn't the fault of Fedora, but the Adobe RPMs. Still burned about three hours tracking this one down.

CUT 4
Window positions in workspaces not saved
I guess we can blame GNOME here for this annoyance. Devilspie is an interesting workaround, but GNOME should just do the right thing the first time. Currently, it doesn't. Here's another link re:devilspie.

CUT 5
Wake on Lan is now broken
Perhaps this is related to my new 3ware 9650SE RAID card. It was working fine before. I've gone through the Broadcom diagnostics bootable CD (b57udiag.exe) which fixed it the last time. No go this time. And ethtool reports wake on lan should be good to go and the BIOS is enabled for WOL:
[sodo@ogre fedora12]$ sudo ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ TP ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Speed: 1000Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: Twisted Pair
PHYAD: 1
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
Supports Wake-on: g
Wake-on: g
Current message level: 0x000000ff (255)
Link detected: yes

So I don't know whussup here.

Update 2/24/2010
I spent about eight hours debugging why wake on lan wouldn't work on my newly built system. When through a million threads, learned something about sleep states in Linux..finally got it by putting a line in the Linux halt script (called by "shutdown -h now" to remove the kernel module for the ethernet driver. Self-evident, right? NOT! What the F?

full story here
*** end update ***

CUT 6
GRUB takes 3.5 minutes to boot!
Man, this one is a bugger. Grub loads and then the system hangs for 3.5 minutes until kernel starts up. Probably related to the new GPT partitioning that I'm using on the new 4.5TB RAID5 set. Drag having to wait that long for boot. I've got a few leads on the issue, nothing solved yet.

Update 2/28/2010
Looks like I was barking up the wrong tree with my assumption that it was Grub and GPT causing my long boot times. It seems to be an interaction with the two PCI Express cards that I have in the box: the NVidia 8800GT and the 3Ware 9650SE card. Once I removed the 8800GT, the box booted up in about 40 seconds. Of course, I can't put the 8800GT in the lower slow because it is does not fit with the 8x-16x PCIe adapter. Now I have to figure out what the heck is going on..
*** end update ***

Update 3/2/2010
So whaddya do when you have a sticky problem? YOU DREMEL THE F*CKER!

I must say I did a much nicer job dremeling the lower slot (the one on the right in the picture) this time.

Now the box boots in 40 seconds instead of 4 minutes..wahoo!
*** end update ***

CUT 7
Preferences -> Windows control has been removed by default
Another irritation. I like my Windows to come to the foreground by simply mousing over them. The Windows Preference control is not installed by default. So, you'll need to install control-center-extra to return the ability to tweak your window focus settings. Argh.

CUT 8
No Xorg.conf file
The Fedora 12 Deployment Guide makes no mention of the possibility of having no xorg.conf file after a new install:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/deployment-guide/f12/en-US/html/s1-x-server-configuration.html

But it is mentioned in the list of Fedora 12 bugs.

CUT 9
Disabling the nouveau video driver in favor of the NVidia proprietary driver is a pain
Related to #8. If you'd rather use NVidia's driver instead of the open source nouveau video driver, this can cause some pain too. Here's info on that process. The x86-64 NVidia install per those instructions may break with the following error in Xorg.0.log:
(II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia/libglx.so
dlopen: libGLcore.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia/libglx.so
(II) UnloadModule: "glx"
(EE) Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7)

This is due to the installer either installing the NVidia 32-bit libraries first, or just not working properly. So the fix is to install the 64-bit libraries first and then the 32-bit ones second, as per my post on FedoraForum.org:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1332653&postcount=961


Related, here's info on video modes you can select upon boot using a kernel switch. More importantly, how the nouveau driver gets loaded in the kernel here and in the context of Mandriva, here (via initrd).

I was interested in disabling the nouveau driver altogether, just in case it fixed issue #2 above, so I:
1) added nouveau to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
2) rebuilt my mkinitrd file (had to "yum install mkinitrd" on F12)
mkinitrd -v -f /root/initrd-`uname -r`.img `uname -r`
3) added a new entry in my grub.conf pointing to that mkinitrd, no longer using an initial ram filesystem:
title Fedora (2.6.31.12-174.2.3.fc12.x86_64)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-174.2.3.fc12.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_ogre-lv_root scsi_mod.scan=sync
initrd /initramfs-2.6.31.12-174.2.3.fc12.x86_64.img

but using old school initrd file:
title Fedora (2.6.31.12-174.2.3.fc12.x86_64_minusNouveau)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-174.2.3.fc12.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_ogre-lv_root scsi_mod.scan=sync
initrd /initrd-2.6.31.12-174.2.3.fc12.x86_64.img

Sankaran Raman provides an alternate method of disabling the nouveau driver by creating and editing an xorg.conf file.


CUT 10
Mplayer keeps resetting volume to maximum
This one is not good for my ears or my speakers. Thankfully, there is an easy fix:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/mplayer-keeps-resetting-volume-to-max-773269/

CUT 11
AAC audio encoding not included in ffmpeg non-free distro
Now, this isn't a cut on Fedora. Rightly so, RPM Fusion doesn't package FAAC support as it is a proprietary codec. So you'll get errors in FFMPEG like "unsupported audio codec: libfaac" if you try to convert an audio or video file to AAC audio format. Ugh. Here is a solution to this problem:
http://fozzolog.fozzilinymoo.org/tech/2009/11/recompiling-ffmpeg-for-fedora-12-to-add-faac-support.html

CUT 12
lose control of left mouse button
The left mouse button stops functioning. This is an incredible pain in the a$$. From a link I found I Google (of course), under Keyboard Preferences -> Mouse Keys, I disabled "Pointer can be controlled using the keypad". This seems to have resolved the issue. Yarg!!

Pardon my evident frustration on these issues folks, but I'm spending too much time on install problems and not enough time creating. It's brutal just trying to get work done. I'm not leaving Fedora, but everytime I upgrade, this is what happens.

I'll keep you abreast of the various remaining situations..
TAG

3ware 9650SE support experience

I recently bought a RAID card and new drives for video editing:
3WARE Pci-e 9650SE RAID card with Battery Backup
four Western Digital 1.5 TB Green SATA 32MB Cache Hard Drive

I setup a RAID5 array with the four 1.5TB drives and installed Fedora 12, x86-64 on top. The RAID array is the boot drive and I've setup a GPT partition. However, I have a slight problem as the boot times on my Dell SC1430 have increased to about four minutes! This is an unacceptably long time for a boot sequence to finish.

Update 2011/10/24
The long-boot problem I experienced was because during the process of the 3ware install, I had to move the GPU (NVidia 8800GT) to a different PCIe (PCI Express) slot (the second one from the end).  For some reason, the Dell SC1430 that I have slows the boot time considerably when using that slot for the video card.  Moving the 8800GT from the second slot to the first PCIe slot resolved the boot time issue.
*** end update ***

Online Chat System
I opened a ticket with 3ware support via their online chat and after an hour of waiting, an engineer finally got on the chat and told me that I need to upgrade my controller card firmware version and Linux driver version to the latest and greatest. The online chat system was OK; however, I waited an hour, stepped away for five minutes and in those five minutes, the engineer responded to my query and promptly dropped off the line.

Luckily, there is a feature to have the chat session emailed to you. I did that and saw the response from the engineer. So that was good. But here's a note for 3ware..if your engineer's are too busy to leave their chat session open for more than five minutes, either retrain them to keep the session open for at least fifteen minutes or hire more support engineers!! It is frustrating for the customer to be dropped like that.

Secondly, I need confirmation about the availability of an rpm for F12, x86-64, so I hopped on the online chat again and waited 45 minutes. After waiting, the online chat just dropped me altogether without any answer from an engineer. Frustrating. 3ware needs to work on this system.

Multiple Software Versions
In any case, I needed to find my current driver version and controller card version. Just finding this information was a task in itself. The support information on 3ware's site is all there..it is just a big task just wading through it all. Also, there seems to be a lot of redundant and confusing information in the Linux section.

Here's another suggestion for 3ware..for 3ware newbies, there should be a simple introduction to the product explaining that the product includes multiple software versions:
-the firmware on the controller card
-the operating system driver
-the command line interface software version
-the software api version
-the web gui version


Basic Install on Linux
You want to install just two items:
1) the command line interface (tw_cli)
2) the 3DM2 GUI

As of this writing, the most recent install packages are these:

tw_cli-linux-x86_64-9.5.3.tgz
3DM2_CLI-Linux-x86_64-9.5.3.tgz



You'll unpack those files (tar xvf ).  If you run any flavor of Linux, that 3DM2 installer will drop a "setupLinux*.bin" file in the unpack directory.  You'll want to "chmod a+x setupLinux*.bin" and then execute that file.  In my case:
./setupLinux_x64.bin

Here are some screens to help you see the process:

Web GUI Gotcha
One of the other gotchas is that once you install the web GUI (3DM2), you'll need to set a browser exception of "localhost".  If you don't do that, you'll get "Webpage is not available" when you login to https://localhost:888.

Good Information from the Command Line client
9650SE controller card firmare version
[root@ogre ~]# tw_cli
//ogre> show

Ctl Model (V)Ports Drives Units NotOpt RRate VRate BBU
------------------------------------------------------------------------
c4 9650SE-4LPML 4 4 1 0 1 1 OK

//ogre> /c4 show

Unit UnitType Status %RCmpl %V/I/M Stripe Size(GB) Cache AVrfy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
u0 RAID-5 OK - - 256K 4190.92 RiW ON

VPort Status Unit Size Type Phy Encl-Slot Model
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
p0 OK u0 1.36 TB SATA 0 - WDC WD15EADS-00P8B0
p1 OK u0 1.36 TB SATA 1 - WDC WD15EADS-00P8B0
p2 OK u0 1.36 TB SATA 2 - WDC WD15EADS-00P8B0
p3 OK u0 1.36 TB SATA 3 - WDC WD15EADS-00P8B0

Name OnlineState BBUReady Status Volt Temp Hours LastCapTest
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
bbu On Yes OK OK OK 255 06-Feb-2010

//ogre> /c4 show firmware
/c4 Firmware Version = FE9X 4.08.00.006

9650SE controller card serial number
[root@ogre ~]# tw_cli
//ogre> /c4 show serial
/c4 Serial Number = LXXXX10A9420XXX

9650SE Linux driver version
[root@ogre ~]# cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host4/stats
3w-9xxx Driver version: 2.26.02.012
Current commands posted: 0
Max commands posted: 29
Current pending commands: 0
Max pending commands: 0
Last sgl length: 2
Max sgl length: 32
Last sector count: 24
Max sector count: 256
SCSI Host Resets: 0
AEN's: 0

9650SE application software version
[root@ogre ~]# tw_cli
//ogre> show ver
CLI Version = 2.01.09.004
API Version = 2.06.01.006

Ticketing System
Also, there is a separate system for ticketing (Siebel CRM provided by lsi.com) so you have to create two logins, which is dumb:
-one login for the support site
-one login for ticketing

They need to fix this.

I will update this post when I have further information and hopefully, a solution to my problem.
'sodo

3ware Resources
3ware Support Contacts
http://www.3ware.com/support/support.asp
3ware Software Version Checker
http://www.3ware.com/support/versionchecker.asp
3ware Software Download Center
http://www.3ware.com/support/download.asp
Documentation
http://www.3ware.com/support/userdocs.asp
Direct Downloads for all 3ware products
http://www.3ware.com/support/downloadpage.asp
Direct Downloads for the 9650SE
http://www.3ware.com/support/downloadpageprod.asp?pcode=19&path=Escalade9650SE-Series&prodname=3ware%209650SE-%202LP/4LPML/8LPML/%2012ML/16ML
Online Support Ticketing System
https://www.3ware.com/

Other Resources

Common 3ware /var/log/messages

http://mildsoft.documents.co.kr/?p=129
Startup script for 3dm2
http://www.slackwiki.org/3ware_3DM2