dmidecode fails to output smibios 3.0 info

We found this during certification testing of a couple models from one OEM that apparently use SMIBIOS 3.0.

The failed test shows this in the output:

mmap: Can't map beyond end of file /sys/firmware/dmi/tables/DMI
Table is unreachable, sorry.
*** Incorrect or unknown server chassis type!

Failed 1 test (see above)

We also capture output of dmidecode in the test logs, on the 3.0 system this is all we get in output:

# dmidecode 3.0
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.0.0 present.
Table at 0x7BB4E000.

Can you supply some more information:

1. Which kernels were being used? (RH 7.2 and Ubuntu)

2. Can you tar up the /sys/firmware directory on both systems so I can see if there any obvious differences at the interface level.

You will need to do that as root to be able to read the data.

Thanks

Hi Colin,

We ran into this at Cisco during 16.04 certification, Samantha asked me to collect the data you requested to see if we can be of any help.

kernel versions:
Ubuntu 16.04: 4.4.0-21-generic
RHEL 7.2: 3.10.0-327.el7.x86_64

I've attached dmi_cisco.rar which will have a screenshot with dmidecode output same as Samantha's above, along with the /sys/firmware directories for Ubuntu 16.04 and a fresh install of RHEL 7.2. I executed as root and was able to poke around the directories, but if any issues with the data I can try to recollect.

Thanks,
Jeff

The /sys/firmware tarballs on another system.

"RHEL 7.2 with kernel ver:3.10.0-327.x86_4 (but have update dmi ver to 3.0)and Ubuntu kernel 4.4.0-21-generic"

The /sys/firmware tarballs on another system.

"RHEL 7.2 with kernel ver:3.10.0-327.x86_4 (but have update dmi ver to 3.0)and Ubuntu kernel 4.4.0-21-generic"

use 123 to open the tarball attached in #6.

Recent BIOS upgrades from Asrock Rack is also hitting this, for example v2.10 for the dual socket Xeon EP2C612D16-2L2T board.

For Asrock at least SMBIOS 3.0 seems to have arrived with Broadwell-EP CPU support (Xeon E5 v4).

The following two upstream patches is needed to fix this (on my system):

Let read_file return the actual data size
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/dmidecode.git/commit/?id=de9a74e1c60210bee229fcf55b1678a99d1b44dd

dmidecode: Use read_file() to read the DMI table from sysfs
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/dmidecode.git/commit/?id=364055211b1956539c6a6268e111e244e1292c8c

There's also a couple other SMBIOS 3.0 related fixes that is listed as recomended for 3.0 on http://dmidecode.nongnu.org/

Fix 'No SMBIOS nor DMI entry point found' on SMBIOS3
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/dmidecode.git/commit/?id=bf7bad24ce141dab5b5acc3ffb98ce5fe4a8e0f9

Use DWORD for Structure table maximum size in SMBIOS3
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/dmidecode.git/commit/?id=ab02b117511230e46bbef7febbd854b9c832c13c

Hi, I've uploaded an updated dmidecode including the patches mentioned by Andre above to a test ppa:

ppa:colin-king/dmidecode

let me know if this solves the issue, and if it does I'll get it uploaded to Yakkety and SRU'd for Xenial

Yup, this package fixes it on my systems.

This bug was fixed in the package dmidecode - 3.0-2ubuntu1

---------------
dmidecode (3.0-2ubuntu1) yakkety; urgency=medium

  * Fix decoding of SMBIOS 3.0 tables (LP: #1578022)
    - Pull in upstream fixes to allow dmidecode to decode
      SMBIOS 3.0 tables, 4 upstream fixes:
      + Fix 'No SMBIOS nor DMI entry point found' on SMBIOS3
      + Let read_file return the actual data size of the entry point
      + Use read_file() to read the DMI table from sysfs
      + Use DWORD for Structure table maximum size in SMBIOS3

 -- Colin Ian King <email address hidden> Fri, 13 May 2016 13:42:11 +0100

SRU Xenial diff:
https://launchpad.net/~colin-king/+archive/ubuntu/dmidecode-sru-1578022/+files/dmidecode_3.0-2_3.0-2ubuntu0.1.diff.gz

https://launchpad.net/~colin-king/+archive/ubuntu/dmidecode-sru-1578022/+packages

Hello Samantha, or anyone else affected,

Accepted dmidecode into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dmidecode/3.0-2ubuntu0.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Hi Adam, after enabling -proposed and installing the dmidecode_3.0-2ubuntu0.1 package, it resolved the dmidecode issue.

Can this also be SRUd to Trusty?

On 19/05/16 16:49, Jeff Lane wrote:
> Can this also be SRUd to Trusty?
>

Backporting it maybe non-trivial, I will have a look and see what is
required.

@Jeff, the backport to the much older 2.x version of smbios is just too intrusive and risky for me to deem this worthwhile; this is more like adding a feature to the older version 2 of the code, which is outside of the remit of a SRU, so for Trusty, I'm not going to SRU this.

Understood. Thanks for investigating the possibility.

On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 10:43 AM, Colin Ian King
<email address hidden> wrote:
> @Jeff, the backport to the much older 2.x version of smbios is just too
> intrusive and risky for me to deem this worthwhile; this is more like
> adding a feature to the older version 2 of the code, which is outside of
> the remit of a SRU, so for Trusty, I'm not going to SRU this.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1578022
>
> Title:
> dmidecode fails to output smibios 3.0 info
>
> Status in dmidecode package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in dmidecode source package in Xenial:
> Fix Committed
> Status in dmidecode source package in Yakkety:
> Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> [SRU JUSTIFICATION][XENIAL]
>
> Ubuntu 16.04, dmidecode 3.0-2 can display smibios 2.8 but not smibios
> 3.0. Rhel 7.2 can display smibios 3.0 on the same system without a
> problem.
>
> [FIX]
> Let read_file return the actual data size
> http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/dmidecode.git/commit/?id=de9a74e1c60210bee229fcf55b1678a99d1b44dd
>
> dmidecode: Use read_file() to read the DMI table from sysfs
> http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/dmidecode.git/commit/?id=364055211b1956539c6a6268e111e244e1292c8c
>
> There's also a couple other SMBIOS 3.0 related fixes that is listed as
> recomended for 3.0 on http://dmidecode.nongnu.org/
>
> Fix 'No SMBIOS nor DMI entry point found' on SMBIOS3
> http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/dmidecode.git/commit/?id=bf7bad24ce141dab5b5acc3ffb98ce5fe4a8e0f9
>
> Use DWORD for Structure table maximum size in SMBIOS3
> http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/dmidecode.git/commit/?id=ab02b117511230e46bbef7febbd854b9c832c13c
>
> Without the fix, dmidecode fails to display SMBIOS 3.0 tables. With
> the fix the headers can be decoded correctly.
>
> [REGRESSION POTENTIAL]
> Could break existing dmi table decoding. However, this has been tested on pre 3.0 and 3.0 SMBIOS tables, so the risk seems minimal as it works on a range of DMI table versions.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dmidecode/+bug/1578022/+subscriptions
>
> Launchpad-Notification-Type: bug
> Launchpad-Bug: distribution=ubuntu; sourcepackage=dmidecode; component=main; status=Fix Released; importance=Medium; <email address hidden>;
> Launchpad-Bug: distribution=ubuntu; distroseries=xenial; sourcepackage=dmidecode; component=main; status=Fix Committed; importance=Medium; <email address hidden>;
> Launchpad-Bug: distribution=ubuntu; distroseries=yakkety; sourcepackage=dmidecode; component=main; status=Fix Released; importance=Medium; <email address hidden>;
> Launchpad-Bug-Tags: hwcert-server verification-needed
> Launchpad-Bug-Information-Type: Public
> Launchpad-Bug-Private: no
> Launchpad-Bug-Security-Vulnerability: no
> Launchpad-Bug-Commenters: adconrad andre-tomt bladernr colin-king janitor jefleung samantha-jian
> Launchpad-Bug-Reporter: Samantha Jian-Pielak (samantha-jian)
> Launchpad-Bug-Modifier: Colin Ian King (colin-king)
> Lau...

This bug was fixed in the package dmidecode - 3.0-2ubuntu0.1

---------------
dmidecode (3.0-2ubuntu0.1) xenial; urgency=medium

  * Fix decoding of SMBIOS 3.0 tables (LP: #1578022)
    - Pull in upstream fixes to allow dmidecode to decode
      SMBIOS 3.0 tables, 4 upstream fixes:
      + Fix 'No SMBIOS nor DMI entry point found' on SMBIOS3
      + Let read_file return the actual data size of the entry point
      + Use read_file() to read the DMI table from sysfs
      + Use DWORD for Structure table maximum size in SMBIOS3

 -- Colin Ian King <email address hidden> Fri, 13 May 2016 13:42:11 +0100

The verification of the Stable Release Update for dmidecode has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.