ConnectX-7 Ethernet Linux Support

I’ve been trying to get a CX-7 NIC (MCX713106AC-VEA_Ax) to link up in Ethernet mode with RHEL 8.6 without any success. I’ve tried all link speeds from 25G NRZ to 200G PAM-4, with both optical and copper. The mlx5 driver shows all speeds supported, and the lasers in the optical transceivers are lighting up, but no link is occurring. mlxlink is showing that it’s polling, but it is also showing the error:

Troubleshooting Info

Status Opcode : 1048
Group Opcode : MNG FW
Recommendation : Datapath failed to reach DPactivated after apply

I have downloaded the latest versions of OFED and the tools (4.21.0-99), but they might not support CX-7, since it is not listed in the list of supported devices.
Is there a trick to getting the CX-7 to work? This was never a problem with the CX-5 or CX-6.

The problem has been resolved with a F/W down-date. The F/W on the NIC was from the production line and needed to be updated (actually downgraded) to the current release. Once the new F/W was installed and the system power-cycled (not just a reboot), it is functioning correctly.

can you give some details on which specific versions of fw that you downgraded from and to? Also, do you know how to put the cx-7 into livefish mode?
Thanks for any help.

The card was shipped with 28.98.2402. I downgraded it to 28.34.4000 and now it works. I’m not familiar with livefish mode.

Thanks for the extremely fast response! I have a cx-7 nic that has 28.33.0751 on it and I am trying to upgrade to 28.34.4000 (in the hopes that it might work with vsphere 8.x ). The issue is that the nic is being recognized as non-encrypted and all of the new fw is signed. I am getting the following error msg when trying to burn the new fw:

-E- Burning encrypted image on non-encrypted device is not allowed

Thanks again for the quick reply.

That sounds like you are trying to use the wrong image. Be sure to select the correct OPN and verify the PSID on the F/W download page. If that is all correct, we might need to wait for someone from nvidia to respond to this topic.