Help unlocking Intel X710-DA2 10GB SFP+ cards to work with any SFP+ DAC cable or modules?

[TheLinuxGuy]

I purchased an original intel (non-dell) X710-DA2 network adapter from ebay and quickly came to learn that my SFP+ DAC cables from Amazon don't work with it and that I may need to spend $20 for new DACs...

 

After some digging around I came across some discussions about removing these restrictions by editing the EPROM using this tool: https://github.com/terpstra/xl710-unlocker/blob/master/mypoke.c

 

However I have never messed around with hexadecimal or address records of this type before "00006870 + 00 => 000b"

 

Does anyone have some expertise in this space? is there a better/easier tool to remove these restrictions on intel's latest firmware 9.20? Any crash course on this somewhere? I couldn't find much documented except README.md here: https://github.com/Nevinskas/xl710-unlocker

Also someone posted this tool which seems to do the work for you but it did not work for me on 9.20 firmware:  https://github.com/bibigon812/xl710-unlocker

[tucotheugly]

On 5/7/2023 at 11:56 AM, TheLinuxGuy said:

I purchased an original intel (non-dell) X710-DA2 network adapter from ebay and quickly came to learn that my SFP+ DAC cables from Amazon don't work with it and that I may need to spend $20 for new DACs...

 

After some digging around I came across some discussions about removing these restrictions by editing the EPROM using this tool: https://github.com/terpstra/xl710-unlocker/blob/master/mypoke.c

 

However I have never messed around with hexadecimal or address records of this type before "00006870 + 00 => 000b"

 

Does anyone have some expertise in this space? is there a better/easier tool to remove these restrictions on intel's latest firmware 9.20? Any crash course on this somewhere? I couldn't find much documented except README.md here: https://github.com/Nevinskas/xl710-unlocker

Also someone posted this tool which seems to do the work for you but it did not work for me on 9.20 firmware:  https://github.com/bibigon812/xl710-unlocker

Did you ever get this working? I have an x710 with the same issue. I see it in system devices, but can't get it to work. 

[TheLinuxGuy]

6 hours ago, tucotheugly said:

Did you ever get this working? I have an x710 with the same issue. I see it in system devices, but can't get it to work. 

 

Intel NIC cards are picky with the DAC cables and transceivers. I did find a way to unlock the EEPROM by turning on a magic setting hidden in the firmware BUT still DID NOT work for my DAC cable and had to buy a $20 one off amazon.

 

There is a manual way to change the EEPROM hexadecimal setting but this tool supposedly does this for you (I did it manually - go to servethehome forums if you want to find the manual instructions). This tool should do the math and find the right memory address to edit: https://github.com/bibigon812/xl710-unlocker - like I said it did not work for me, but the setting was changed.