Hey John, I've added a section to the FAQ on the website to add a little bit of info to atleast point people in the right direction. There will also be some manpage updates in the next release.
Thanks, Al On Thu, 2011-01-27 at 10:17 -0800, Albert Chu wrote: > Hey John, > > I'll add something into the docs to give users hints on how to tell if > their system has IPMI. Most users know from their product > documentation. > > As for having the tools say if IPMI is supported on your system or not, > it's unfortunately very difficult/impossible. The IPMI spec does not > provide enough/define enough to make it possible. For example, I have > several motherboards that do not give you *any* information that IPMI is > available (discounting product manuals). Once FreeIPMI starts poking at > default locations, it just happens to work. To contrast, I have seen > some motherboards provide invalid information saying that IPMI is not > supported, yet if the tools ignore this and try to communicate via IPMI > anyways, it'll work. > > I'll see if I can add something better to handle your situation, but > it's difficult to get something that can make FreeIPMI best for all > situations. > > As for whether your motherboard supports IPMI, the below suggests its > not supported since it cannot find any IPMI support info in various > BIOS/SMBIOS/PCI locations [1]. > > Thanks, > > Al > > [1] - BTW, the 1.0.1 release of FreeIPMI does not output the default > values by default (which I think confused people). I assume you > installed FreeIPMI out of your distro, which may have had an older > version. > > On Wed, 2011-01-26 at 19:33 -0800, John Gilmore wrote: > > I tried installing freeipmi on my system, but I can't get it working. > > I don't even know if my motherboard contains IPMI support. How can > > I tell? The FAQ doesn't say, the README doesn't say, the tools don't > > say, their man pages don't say what they do on a machine without IPMI. > > There's no obvious command to "test whether this system implements IPMI". > > > > Please add some clarity to the documentation, for people who have no > > idea whether this hardware exists in their system or on their network. > > And possibly evolve the commands themselves so that they are clear about > > whether they see any IPMI hardware or not. > > > > The closest thing to diagnostic info that I can give you comes from: > > > > % sudo ipmi-locate > > Probing KCS device using DMIDECODE... FAILED > > > > Probing SMIC device using DMIDECODE... FAILED > > > > Probing BT device using DMIDECODE... FAILED > > > > Probing SSIF device using DMIDECODE... FAILED > > > > Probing KCS device using SMBIOS... FAILED > > > > Probing SMIC device using SMBIOS... FAILED > > > > Probing BT device using SMBIOS... FAILED > > > > Probing SSIF device using SMBIOS... FAILED > > > > Probing KCS device using ACPI... FAILED > > > > Probing SMIC device using ACPI... FAILED > > > > Probing BT device using ACPI... FAILED > > > > Probing SSIF device using ACPI... FAILED > > > > Probing KCS device using PCI... FAILED > > > > Probing SMIC device using PCI... FAILED > > > > Probing BT device using PCI... FAILED > > > > Probing SSIF device using PCI... FAILED > > > > KCS device default values: > > IPMI Version: 1.5 > > IPMI locate driver: DEFAULT > > IPMI interface: KCS > > BMC driver device: > > BMC I/O base address: 0xCA2 > > Register spacing: 1 > > > > SMIC device default values: > > IPMI Version: 1.5 > > IPMI locate driver: DEFAULT > > IPMI interface: SMIC > > BMC driver device: > > BMC I/O base address: 0xCA9 > > Register spacing: 1 > > > > BT device default values: > > SSIF device default values: > > IPMI Version: 1.5 > > IPMI locate driver: DEFAULT > > IPMI interface: SSIF > > BMC driver device: /dev/i2c-0 > > BMC SMBUS slave address: 0x42 > > Register spacing: 1 > > > > % > > > > So, does that mean I have hardware or not? No other command seems > > to do anything, e.g.: > > > > % sudo bmc-info > > ipmi_cmd_get_device_id: driver timeout > > % > > > > I did look for SMbus devices in lspci, and I have one: > > > > 00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 10) > > 00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge > > 00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge > > 00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA > > 00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0) > > 00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1) > > 00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2) > > 00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3) > > 00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4) > > 00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI) > > 00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 13) > > 00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE > > 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) > > 00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge > > 00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge > > 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] > > HyperTransport Technology Configuration > > 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] > > Address Map > > 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] > > DRAM Controller > > 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] > > Miscellaneous Control > > 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS482 [Radeon > > Xpress 200] > > 01:05.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Xpress Series > > (RS482) > > 07:04.0 Mass storage controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3512 > > [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 01) > > 3f:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5755 Gigabit > > Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02) > > > > But I don't know if my kernel has the proper driver, or indeed whether > > this SMbus driver is what IPMI requires. I'm running Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS. > > > > Thank you for creating this software. > > > > John Gilmore -- Albert Chu [email protected] Computer Scientist High Performance Systems Division Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory _______________________________________________ Freeipmi-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/freeipmi-users
