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mastacontrola · 2017-03-15, 14:43

(2017-03-15 10:06)speleo14 Wrote:
(2017-03-13 13:19)mastacontrola Wrote: This, to me, (This is the "Tom" referred to above about the developer of FOG.) sounds exactly like a firmware issue.

Maybe we need to go to Apple and somehow file a Firmware issue? While I'm not sure how Apple feels about PXE Booting machines, the fact remains, from what I can tell here, that they pushed an update and that update broke something unexpectedly. These Mac's aren't going away anytime soon, and updating firmware to limit potential areas of boot seems like a rather large 'exploitation' of customer's own rights when purchasing machines.

I don't know who we would talk to, but I really doubt this is a problem from FOG or iPXE, but rather some "fix" Apple added to the ROM information on the NIC. Whether this was intentional or not I don't know.

One of the problems I've had with Apple is they tend not to care about the consumer and treat the customers as if they're temporary borrowers of their equipment. They're typically helpful if you do have an issue and are in their support terms, but the moment your warranty or "apple care" expires, they're really quick to try to make you go out and buy new equipment. I'm still not sure how to report a bug like this with Apple, though I'm certain somebody knows how somewhere.

Sorry about the vent there. Supporting Mac's should not be this difficult and it seems anytime a new update comes out for "Apple" devices, a new issue is broken and rarely does there seem to be a fix implemented.

I agree completely!

I have an Apple developer account, so I can file a bug report; in fact, I have already been thinking about doing so, just wanted to wait until we are sure that it is indeed the firmware.
So, since we all agree that this is an issue with Apple's firmware, I will do so - however, it's not unlikely that they will more or less ignore it.
Maybe it would be a good idea if somebody else also reports this to Apple.

I don't have an account, though creating one shouldn't be too problematic. That said, as this does appear to be a firmware issue, if we can't hold our breaths that a fix will come to place, might it be easier to find out a "change log" of what was changed between firmware B05 vs. B15? Even if it means something was added/adjusted that might be able to be corrected for in the iPXE BCM driver handling? Of course this would lead down a road that would essentially make the Mac's only usable on an 'ipxe' created driver system (Leaving out SNP/SNPONLY I suppse?)

Just thoughts in my head. I don't expect we'll see Apple pushing out a fix for this because of iPXE not working, but maybe we can get what was changed so the Opensource community might be able to provide a work around.