As a very belated data point to disabling the ME on the x230, it appears that it also disables the e1000e wired ethernet. The Linux kernel's ich8lan.c file reports an error that "No valid NVM bank present" and won't bring up eth0 if the ME has been flashed with a minimal firmware.
Since the ME shares the device with the host for command & control by external parties, this seems like there must be some setup that the ME does on the device to coordinate access with the x86.
On 03/20/2017 02:37 PM, Trammell Hudson wrote:
As a very belated data point to disabling the ME on the x230, it appears that it also disables the e1000e wired ethernet. The Linux kernel's ich8lan.c file reports an error that "No valid NVM bank present" and won't bring up eth0 if the ME has been flashed with a minimal firmware.
Since the ME shares the device with the host for command & control by external parties, this seems like there must be some setup that the ME does on the device to coordinate access with the x86.
I believe that newer intel nics have some kind of "NVM" firmware image on them (and the EEUpdate utility lets you update it)
Maybe ME loads it for LOM's to enable the "special" management features? (Intel L is regular version LM is "LOM" version which supports ME/vPro), I imagine the "regular" nics either have it present in the regular flash image or on a separate EEPROM like with one of the pci-e cards.
Source: https://plone.lucidsolutions.co.nz/networking/nic/intel/flash-winyao-i350-t4...
Note: this isn't the pxe/iscsi boot firmware it is something else, send me an email if you want the update utility or you can get an EFI version from the IBM website.
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Trammell Hudson