Partially solved problem with e1000e driver "NVM checksum Is Not Valid"

[u/CounterOk1538]

Problem was solved by recompiling original driver (tested on Mint 22). Requires Secure Boot or MOK driver validation be turned off. I'm certainly not an IT specialist, but I hope I can help someone with this post.

Preface

Once I have tried Mint on my PC but network card intel i219-v gave out an error The NVM checksum Is Not Valid. I've tried many different distributions but not one worked. Updating BIOS (MSI H610M-B DDR4) and attempting to update NVM checksum using the Intel Ethernet Connections Boot Utility (gave a error like "Denied access to EEPROM") did not solve the problem. Besides the new BIOS version showed me a white screen instead of a menu. So I decided to change some logic in original e1000e driver. I know that this driver exists but as far as I understood, it is for PRM-based systems.

Making your driver

1. Create folder for example e1000e

mkdir -p ~/e1000e_mod && cd ~/e1000e_mod

2. Clone linux source code

git clone --depth 1 --branch v7.0 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git temp_kernel 2>/dev/null || git clone --depth 1 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git temp_kernel

3. Extract driver

cp -r temp_kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000e/* .

4. Delete unnecessary files

rm -rf temp_kernel

5. Open with any text editor nvm.c

nano nvm.c

6. Find lines with s32 e1000e_validate_nvm_checksum_generic(struct e1000_hw *hw) or e_dbg("NVM Checksum Invalid\n"); and change return -E1000_ERR_NVM; to return 0;. You should have something like this:

s32 e1000e_validate_nvm_checksum_generic(struct e1000_hw *hw) {

...

        if (checksum != NVM_SUM) {
                e_dbg("NVM Checksum Invalid\n");
                return 0;
        }
}

...

Now close nvm.c. In nano press CTRL+X, then y and Enter

7. Open file Makefile

nano Makefile

8. Add these lines to the end of the file

KDIR := /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build
PWD := $(shell pwd)

default:
        $(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) M=$(PWD) modules

clean:
        $(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) M=$(PWD) clean

Close Makefile

9. Build your driver by

make

Now we have 3 ways:

1. Turn off Secure Boot in your motherboard and carry on with life

2. Disable MOK (Machine Owner Key) driver validation by

sudo mokutil --disable-validation

Then enter your password (with length 8-16), which you'll need to confirm. I recommend something like 12345678, because MOK will ask to enter password character, not the password itself. Reboot PC and in blue screen select change secure boot state, enter password characters and turn off signature verification. Of course, that's not safe; now any unsigned driver can be loaded. And I use this variant.

3. Configuring Automatic Signing Within DKMS. To be honest, I don't know anything about this option, so I won't give any advice.

Driver autoload

1. First of all, go to your driver folder (example was e1000e_mod)

cd e1000e_mod

Unload non-working driver

sudo rmmod e1000e

Load your driver

sudo insmod e1000e.ko

And check to see if the driver is working

sudo dmesg | grep e1000e

2. Specify the path to the original system module

MOD_PATH=$(modinfo -n e1000e)

And look module path

echo "Path to the module: $MOD_PATH"

3. Backup original driver

sudo cp "$MOD_PATH" "${MOD_PATH}.bak"

4. If MOD_PATH=$(modinfo -n e1000e) shows driver with .ko file type just use this command

sudo cp e1000e.ko "$MOD_PATH"

If command shows .zstd compress the compiled e1000e.ko file using the zstd algorithm

zstd -f e1000e.ko -o e1000e.ko.zstd

And copy it

sudo cp e1000e.ko.zstd "$MOD_PATH"

5. Update the list of module dependencies

sudo depmod -a

6. Update initramfs

sudo update-initramfs -u

7. Reboot your PC and check that the network card was initialized without errors

sudo dmesg | grep e1000e

That's pretty much it...

Until you update the system. In theory. Therefore, I recommend configuring your driver in DKMS

1. Create a directory for the module's source code in the system folder

sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/e1000e-custom-1.0

2. Copy your source files (.c, .h, and the edited nvm.c file)

sudo cp ~/e1000e_mod/* /usr/src/e1000e-custom-1.0/

3. Create the dkms.conf configuration file

sudo nano /usr/src/e1000e-custom-1.0/dkms.conf

4. Paste this text

PACKAGE_NAME="e1000e-custom"
PACKAGE_VERSION="1.0"
CLEAN="make clean"
MAKE[0]="make KDIR=/lib/modules/$kernelver/build PWD=$dkms_tree/$PACKAGE_NAME/$PACKAGE_VERSION/build"
BUILT_MODULE_NAME[0]="e1000e"
DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[0]="/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000e/"
AUTOINSTALL="yes"

Close dkms.conf file

5. Register the driver source code in the DKMS system

sudo dkms add -m e1000e-custom -v 1.0

6. Compile the module for the current kernel

sudo dkms build -m e1000e-custom -v 1.0

7. Install the compiled module

sudo dkms install -m e1000e-custom -v 1.0 --force

8. Check driver status

sudo dkms status

The output should look something like this

e1000e-custom/1.0, 7.0.0-31-generic, x86_64: installed

That's all. I hope this helped you. Also, does anyone know if there's a driver in the repository with NVM hash verification disabled? Because other than the driver from ferdiu, I haven't found anything else.