bce0: bce_pulse(): Warning: bootcode thinks driver is absent! (bc_state = 0x00004006)

[Marc Fournier]

Hi …

   Running a kernel updated on the 24th, I just experienced a total hang of the ethernet … the funny thing is that when I went to the remote console, the network suddenly came up on its own, after being down for about 2 hours ...

I had originally thought it had to do with VirtualBox, since up until now, the only boxes I'd see exhibiting this were running a VirtualBox VPS, but this server doesn't have one running … 

Has anyone seem this before?  

The odd thing is that the bce driver code hasn't been modified since Nov 17th, 2012, according to the FBSDID tag in if_bce.c … so its not a change to the driver itself …

I was having some odd issues with another server that has VirtualBox, where similar would happen … I reverted back to code around Feb 5th, and it seemed to have gone away … am trying to see if I can narrow it down to a specific date, but maybe the error message has more meaning for someone else … ?

Thx …