Upgrade firmware on Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx (TrueNAS SCALE)

[Sawtaytoes]

When I go to install the `mst` software (per these instructions), I get this error:

Code:

~/mft/mft-4.24.0-72-x86_64-deb# ./install.sh
-E- There are missing packages that are required for installation of MFT.
-I- You can install missing packages using: apt-get install gcc make dkms

This software is used to upgrade the Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx's firmware.

Outside of moving the card to a Windows machine, is there a way to upgrade this firmware? I'm thinking of a few possible solutions, one being I load up a VM in a Linux live environment and hope it has direct access to the NIC.

But I'm certain other people have figured this out, so there's something simple I must be missing.

 

[sretalla]

If you have a VM and pass in the PCI address of the NIC, it should be fine.

You may need to play with making IOMMU exclude that NIC from loading a driver as part of that.

You could also look at @Jip-Hop 's project and potentially run that in a systemd-container (although currently requires "breaking" the appliance by enabling apt to re-install systemd-container after iX removed it a couple of versions back.

GitHub - Jip-Hop/jailmaker: Persistent Linux 'jails' on TrueNAS SCALE to install software (docker-compose, portainer, podman, etc.) with full access to all files via bind mounts thanks to systemd-nspawn!

Persistent Linux 'jails' on TrueNAS SCALE to install software (docker-compose, portainer, podman, etc.) with full access to all files via bind mounts thanks to systemd-nspawn! - Jip-Hop/jai...

github.com

 

[Sawtaytoes]

I tried a VM, but I didn't have access to the card itself. I guess I could've booted a Linux live environment. I just put it in my Windows PC and upgraded it. That's a huge pain though.