11.1: Sun Quad FastEthernet card hampers Solaris 11.1 to boot

Question

Hi,
running a Solaris 11 system on x86 with a working Sun Quad FastEthernet card (hme0 - hme3):
root@mother:/home/p009929# modinfo -w -i 199
Id Loadaddr Size Info Rev Module Name
199 fffffffff895c000 6930 175 1 hme (Sun HME 10/100 Mb Ethernet)
root@mother:/home/p009929#
with:
root@mother:/home/p009929# prtconf -vD /dev/hme
pci108e,1001, instance #0 (driver name: hme)
Driver properties:
name='fm-errcb-capable' type=boolean dev=none
name='first-phy' type=int items=1 dev=none
value=00000000
name='model' type=string items=1 dev=none
value='SUNW,cheerio'
name='local-mac-address' type=unknown items=6 dev=none
value=00.03.ba.5e.4d.ba
name='hm-rev' type=int items=1 dev=none
value=000000c1
Hardware properties:
name='assigned-addresses' type=int items=5
value=82060110.00000000.f1008000.00000000.00008000
name='reg' type=int items=10
value=00060100.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000000.02060110.00000000.00000000.00000000.00008000
name='compatible' type=string items=4
value='pci108e,1001.1' + 'pci108e,1001' + 'pciclass,020000' + 'pciclass,0200'
name='model' type=string items=1
value='Ethernet controller'
name='power-consumption' type=int items=2
value=00000001.00000001
name='fast-back-to-back' type=boolean
name='devsel-speed' type=int items=1
value=00000001
name='interrupts' type=int items=1
value=00000002
name='max-latency' type=int items=1
value=00000005
name='min-grant' type=int items=1
value=0000000a
name='unit-address' type=string items=1
value='0,1'
name='class-code' type=int items=1
value=00020000
name='revision-id' type=int items=1
value=00000001
name='vendor-id' type=int items=1
value=0000108e
name='device-id' type=int items=1
value=00001001
Interrupt Specifications:
Interrupt Priority=0x6 (ipl 6), vector=0x3 (3)
Device Minor Nodes:
dev=(175,1)
dev_path=/pci@0,0/pci8086,244e@1e/pci8086,b154@2/pci108e,1001@0,1:hme0
spectype=chr type=minor
dev_link=/dev/hme0
dev=(175,1005)
dev_path=<clone>
Device Minor Layered Under:
mod=udp accesstype=chr
dev_path=/pseudo/udp@0
dev=(175,1007)
dev_path=<clone>
Device Minor Layered Under:
mod=udp6 accesstype=chr
dev_path=/pseudo/udp6@0
dev=(175,1006)
dev_path=<clone>
Device Minor Layered Under:
mod=udp accesstype=chr
dev_path=/pseudo/udp@0
root@mother:/home/p009929#
After upgrading the system to Solaris 11.1 the system simply got stuck during boot:
svc:/system/filesystem/root:default
Method or service timed out. Killing contract 12.
Method "/lib/svc/method/fs-root" failed due to signal KILL
The system never reached a vaild state (only maintenance login without a regular filesystem).
After removing the Quad FastEthernet card and booting Solaris 11.1 the system came up and worked fine.
Any ideas? It must be a bug in 11.1. How can we process this issue to Oracle?
Thanks, Kai

Answer 1

Oracle recommends below things on rpool: (thats reason wanted to apply SMI Label)
I have seen in the Oracle documentation that for rpool below are recommended:
- A disk that is intended for a ZFS root pool must be created with an SMI label, not an EFI label.
- Create root pools with slices by using the s* identifier.
- ZFS applies an EFI label when you create a storage pool with whole disks.
- In general, you should create a disk slice with the bulk of disk space in slice 0.