Arch Linux

Description:

After upgrading open-iscsi to 2.0-877 the initrd system fails to establish iSCSI connection. There is no useful diagnostics except for lack of "...is operational now" message. Various attempts within rescue shell (iscsistart and/or ifconfig with different manual and/or automatic parameters) show fully operational network but iSCSI connection could not be established. Tcpdump (on the target machine) shown no iSCSI packets after loaded kernel took control.

Of course, downgrading open-iscsi to 2.0.876-2 resolved the problem (except for a few minor issues which can be remedied by tweaking /usr/lib/initcpio/hooks/iscsi).

Additional info:
* package version(s)

Arch Linux system:
linux 4.20.3.arch1-1
open-iscsi 2.0.876-2 (working)
open-iscsi 2.0.877-2 (broken)
syslinux 6.04.pre1.r41.g5e426532-1

iSCSI target system:
FreeBSD 11.2-STABLE r336638
istgt version 0.5 (20150713)
iPXE 1.0.0+
Works well with older Arch Linux versions, various FreeBSDs, Windows 10 etc.

* config and/or log files etc.

custom /usr/lib/mkinitcpio/hooks/iscsi:
run_hook ()
{
modprobe iscsi_tcp
modprobe iscsi_ibft

echo "Network configuration based on iBFT"
iscsistart -N || echo "Unable to configure network"

echo "Default route hack"
route add default gw `cat /sys/firmware/ibft/ethernet0/gateway` || echo "Route inaccessible"

echo "Waiting for network to go up" && sleep 5
ifconfig

echo "iSCSI auto connect based on iBFT"
iscsistart -b || echo "Unable to auto connect"
}

* hardware:

Asus P5DL/EPU motherboard. Some other boards with different Realtek, Intel and Broadcom network chips were tried with the same results. Network was either straight cable between GigabitEthernet NICs or through a FastEthernet switch, again with the same results.

Steps to reproduce:

Install diskless Arch Linux system as per https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ISCSI/Boot. A couple of gigabytes of disk image would be enough for base, open-iscsi and syslinux packages. Try to boot. Ignore "initiator reported error (15 - session exists)" message: it is identical in both working and broken cases.