Issues with DPDK ICE PMD

[David Marchand]

On Tue, 12 May 2026 at 22:51, Mahan, Patrick <patrick.mahan at hpe.com> wrote:
> >> I am trying to debug an issue with the ICE PMD in DPDK v24.11.0 in a linux environment (YOCTO scarthgap, 6.6.35 kernel).
> >>
> >> We are bringing up a new platform based on the Intel Atom C5315 which has the ICE driver (E822-L) and I am seeing the following error during the call to rte_eal_init() -
> >>
> >> ICE_INIT: ice_dev_init(): Failed to read device serial number
> >
> >Afaik, reading the device serial number only affects which ddp binary is loaded.
> >If reading this SN fails, there is a fallback, and the device
> >initialisation should still succeed.
> >
>
> Update, it seems that the fallback ddp config was not present, it has now been added and we are seeing the
> DPDK etherdev port is being created.
>
> I am wondering if I should have seen an error about it failing to load the ddp configuration?

Yes, you should see some error logs, like:
ICE_INIT: ice_load_pkg(): failed to search file path
ICE_INIT: ice_dev_init(): Failed to load the DDP package,Use
safe-mode-support=1 to enter Safe Mode

It is not really helpful as it gives no clue about which file is expected.
And enabling debug logs provides nothing more.

I sent a patch touching those logs (adding more logs in debug mode), wdyt?
https://patchwork.dpdk.org/project/dpdk/patch/20260516101942.443871-1-david.marchand@redhat.com/


-- 
David Marchand