Mac Pro not auto-negotiating link speed correctly

Question

We have found that none of our Mac Pros are auto-negotiating their network link speed correctly while running 10.4.10. This happens while booted into the production OS as well as netbooted to a 10.4.10 NetBoot image. The network card can be forced to negotiate at higher speeds either through the command-line or System Preferences but it will not do it on its own. We have gigabit to every desktop and imaging at the default 10 Mbit is horrible! Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

There is a kext that is the culprit:
/System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleIntel82 54XEthernet.kext
In 10.4.9 it's version is 1.1.7a3, in 10.4.10 it is 1.1.8a2, in 10.4.11 it is 1.1.8a6
That doesn't matter much really, but that's the details.
1. Get the 10.4.9 Intel Combo Updater
2. Get OpenUp or Pacifist
3. Open the DMG
4. Show contents on the PKG
5. Copy out the pax.gz file to the desktop
6. un-Gzip the pax, and open that up (with Pacifist or OpenUp)
7. Get the old kext
8. Copy it into your /System/Library/Extentions
Now, the permission on the kext need to be changed to root:wheel or if you in Finder system:wheel
Also, you should either delete the kernel caches or:
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
this changes the date stamp on the directory and OS X will recreate the kernel caches...
And yes, the 10.4.11 seed update corrects this.
Also bonus Log files! These have been "prettied up" for readability, but you'll see, 10.4.10's driver is just spitting out Zer0s so the network switch/hub has no choice but to say "O K... I ' l l s p e a k s l o w e r t h e n..."
10.4.9:
Auto-Neg Advertise Reg (04d) = 0xde1,
Link Partner Ability Reg (05d) = 0xc5e1,
Gig Advertise Reg (09d) = 0xe00,
Gig Link Partner Ability Reg (10d) = 0x7800
10.4.10:
Auto-Neg Advertise Reg (04d) = 0xde1,
Link Partner Ability Reg (05d) = 0x0,
Gig Advertise Reg (09d) = 0xe00,
Gig Link Partner Ability Reg (10d) = 0x0
(Much Prettier)
10.4.11(seed):
Auto-Negotiation Advertisement Register (04d) = 0xde1
Auto-Negotiation Link Partner Ability Register (05d) = 0xc5e1
Auto-Negotiation Gigabit Advertisement Register (09d) = 0xe00
Auto-Negotiation Gigabit Link Partner Ability Register (10d) = 0x7800
PHY Specific Status Register (17d) = 0xaf48
If this info from 10.4.11 is NDA well bite me, I think people should know it'll be fixed in the future, right?