MLX5EN(4)

💅 MLX5EN(4) — the Kernel Interfaces Manual ✨

Hey bestie, welcome to the mlx5en(4) page — the Kernel Interfaces Manual entry for the NVIDIA Mellanox ConnectX-4/5/6 [Dx/Ex/Lx] based 200Gb, 100Gb, 50Gb, 40Gb, 25Gb and 10Gb ethernet adapter driver. Yes that's a mouthful, no we're not shortening it, it's literally the whole vibe. 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

Okay so there are like three ways to get this driver living in your system, and they're all right here 👑

To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:

options COMPAT_LINUXKPI
options RATELIMIT
options KERN_TLS
device xz
device mlxfw
device firmware
device mlx5
device mlx5en

To load the driver as a module at run-time, run the following command as root:

kldload mlx5en

To load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following lines in loader.conf(5):

mlx5en_load="YES"

See? Three options, all iconic, pick your fave 💖

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The mlx5en driver provides support for PCI Express Ethernet adapters based on ConnectX-4/5/6 [Dx, Ex and Lx variants]. She's giving range, okay?

So what does this driver actually do, you ask? Buckle up, because the feature list is long and honestly kind of ate:

• Jumbo Frames 🐘
• Transmit and Receive checksum offload
• TCP segmentation offload (TSO)
• Large Receive Offload (LRO)
• HW Large Receive Offload (HW LRO)
• VLAN tag insertion and extraction
• VLAN checksum offload
• VLAN TSO
• hardware rate limiting (TXRTLMT)
• stateless VxLAN hardware offload for receive and transmit
• HW TLS offload for transmit
• Receive Side Steering (RSS)
• and numa(4) awareness

Like. The range. 🔥

Now the naming situation, because this part lowkey matters: the network interface name is mce<N> which corresponds to a PCI function, mlx_core<N>, where <N> is a number starting at zero. And listen — there is at most one network interface per PCI function. One. Not two. Don't be greedy. 🙈

For further information and questions related to hardware requirements, see https://www.mellanox.com — go off, official site 👑

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🔥 HARDWARE 🔥

The mlx5en driver supports 200Gb, 100Gb, 50Gb, 40Gb, 25Gb and 10Gb ethernet adapters. Speed demon behavior, honestly.

• ConnectX-6 supports 10/20/25/40/50/56/100Gb/200Gb/s speeds. (200, bestie. Two hundred. 😭)
• ConnectX-5 supports 10/20/25/40/50/56/100Gb/s speeds.
• ConnectX-4 supports 10/20/25/40/50/56/100Gb/s speeds.
• ConnectX-4 LX supports 10/25/40/50Gb/s speeds and reduced power consumption. (Green queen 🌱)

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🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

The mlx5en network interface is configured using ifconfig(8) and the sysctl(8) tree at dev.mce.<N>.

And here's the cute part: all configurable entries are also tunables, and can be put directly into the loader.conf(5) for persistent configuration. So you can set it once and forget it — set and forget energy, we love to see it 💅

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🌈 SUPPORT 🌈

For general information and support, go to the NVIDIA Mellanox networking support website at: https://www.mellanox.com — they're right there, go say hi 🫶

If an issue is identified with this driver using a supported adapter, e-mail all the specific information related to the issue to ⟨nbu-freebsd-drivers@nvidia.com⟩. Like all the specific info, okay? Don't make them guess, they're not mind readers 😭

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• ifconfig(8) — bestie, it's literally the only one listed, and honestly it's carrying the whole section

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💜 HISTORY 💜

The mlx5en device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 11.0. A legend from the start, no cap 👑

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🌸 AUTHORS 🌸

The mlx5en driver was written by NVIDIA Mellanox networking <nbu-freebsd-drivers@nvidia.com>. Give them their flowers 💐

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Okay that's the whole page, you made it to the end, proud of you 🥹

And that's a wrap on this Debian page, dated July 20, 2021 — mwah, go configure something iconic 💖🌷