IXL(4)

💖 IXL(4) — the Intel Ethernet 700 Series Driver, bestie edition 💖

ok so this is the man page for ixl, which lives in the Kernel Interfaces Manual section. grab a snack, we're doing NIC lore 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

ixl — Intel Ethernet 700 Series Driver

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so if you wanna bake this driver into the kernel (no cap, very main character move), you drop these lines into your kernel configuration file:

device iflib
device ixl

and if you'd rather just load it as a module at boot time instead? put this in loader.conf(5):

if_ixl_load="YES"

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

🌸 Features 🌸

The ixl driver has your back for literally any PCI Express adapter or LOM (that's LAN On Motherboard, iykyk) in the Intel Ethernet 700 Series. As of right now, the series is giving:

• XL710 (40G)
• X710 (10G)
• XXV710 (25G)
• X722 (10G)

The driver supports Jumbo Frames, TX/RX checksum offload, TCP segmentation offload (TSO), Large Receive Offload (LRO), VLAN tag insertion/extraction, VLAN checksum offload, VLAN TSO, and Receive Side Steering (RSS) — and yes, all of that is for both IPv4 and IPv6. periodt. 💅

For more hardware tea and any questions about hardware requirements, go look at http://support.intel.com/.

Jumbo Frames support comes through the interface MTU setting, bestie. Set an MTU bigger than 1500 bytes with the ifconfig(8) utility and the adapter is configured to receive and transmit Jumbo Frames. The maximum MTU size for Jumbo Frames is 9706.

Offloads are also controlled via the interface — for instance, checksumming for both IPv4 and IPv6 can be set and unset, TSO4 and/or TSO6, and finally LRO can be set and unset. obsessed with the flexibility honestly.

For more info on configuring this device, check ifconfig(8).

🎀 Additional Utilities 🎀

Intel also ships extra tools to help you configure and update the adapters this driver covers. You can download them straight from Intel at https://downloadcenter.intel.com by searching for their names, or by installing certain packages:

• To change the behavior of the QSFP+ ports on XL710 adapters, use the Intel QCU (QSFP+ configuration utility) — installed by the sysutils/intel-qcu package.
• To update the firmware on an adapter, use the Intel Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Update Utility — installed by the sysutils/intel-nvmupdate package.
• Drivers are provided by Intel outside of the FreeBSD kernel — install the net/intel-ixl-kmod package for the latest driver.

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✨ HARDWARE ✨

ok important: most adapters in the Intel Ethernet 700 Series with SFP+/SFP28/QSFP+ cages have firmware that requires Intel qualified modules. the qualified modules are listed below. and no, this qualification check cannot be disabled by the driver. it's giving strict gatekeeping 💀

The ixl driver supports 40Gb Ethernet adapters with these QSFP+ modules:

• Intel 4x10G/40G QSFP+ 40GBASE-SR4 E40GQSFPSR
• Intel 4x10G/40G QSFP+ 40GBASE-LR4 E40GQSFPLR

The ixl driver supports 25Gb Ethernet adapters with these SFP28 modules:

• Intel 10G/25G SFP28 25GBASE-SR E25GSFP28SR
• Intel 10G/25G SFP28 25GBASE-SR E25GSFP28SRX (Extended Temp)

The ixl driver supports 25Gb and 10Gb Ethernet adapters with these SFP+ modules:

• Intel 1G/10G SFP+ SR FTLX8571D3BCV-IT
• Intel 1G/10G SFP+ SR AFBR-703SDZ-IN2
• Intel 1G/10G SFP+ LR FTLX1471D3BCV-IT
• Intel 1G/10G SFP+ LR AFCT-701SDZ-IN2
• Intel 1G/10G SFP+ 10GBASE-SR E10GSFPSR
• Intel 10G SFP+ 10GBASE-SR E10GSFPSRX (Extended Temp)
• Intel 1G/10G SFP+ 10GBASE-LR E10GSFPLR

Also note that adapters support all passive and active limiting direct attach cables that comply with SFF-8431 v4.1 and SFF-8472 v10.4 specifications. 🌈

And heads up: this is not an exhaustive list — please consult product documentation for an up-to-date list of supported media.

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✨ LOADER TUNABLES ✨

Tunables can be set at the loader(8) prompt before booting the kernel, or stored in loader.conf(5).

• hw.ixl.rx_itr — The RX interrupt rate value, set to 62 (124 usec) by default.
• hw.ixl.tx_itr — The TX interrupt rate value, set to 122 (244 usec) by default.
• hw.ixl.i2c_access_method — Access method that the driver will use for I2C reads and writes via sysctl(8) or verbose ifconfig(8) information display:

0 - best available method
1 - bit bang via I2CPARAMS register
2 - register read/write via I2CCMD register
3 - Use Admin Queue command (default best)

Using the Admin Queue is only supported on 710 devices with FW version 1.7 or newer. Set to 0 by default.

• hw.ixl.enable_tx_fc_filter — Filter out packets with Ethertype 0x8808 from being sent out by non-adapter sources. This prevents (potentially untrusted) software or iavf(4) devices from sending out flow control packets and creating a DoS (Denial of Service) event. Enabled by default. 🛡️
• hw.ixl.enable_head_writeback — When the driver is finding the last TX descriptor processed by the hardware, use a value written to memory by the hardware instead of scanning the descriptor ring for completed descriptors. Enabled by default; disable it to mimic the TX behavior found in ixgbe(4).

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✨ SYSCTL PROCEDURES ✨

• dev.ixl.#.fc — Sets the 802.3x flow control mode that the adapter will advertise on the link. A value of 0 disables flow control, 3 enables full, 1 is RX, and 2 is TX pause.

The negotiated flow control setting can be viewed in ifconfig(8), in the interface's media field.

• dev.ixl.#.advertise_speed — Set the speeds that the interface will advertise on the link. dev.ixl.#.supported_speeds contains the speeds that are allowed to be set.
• dev.ixl.#.current_speed — Displays the current speed.
• dev.ixl.#.fw_version — Displays the current firmware and NVM versions of the adapter.

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✨ INTERRUPT STORMS ✨

⚠️ bestie this one matters: it's important to note that 40G operation can generate high numbers of interrupts, often incorrectly being interpreted as a storm condition in the kernel. It is suggested that this be resolved by setting:

hw.intr_storm_threshold: 0

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✨ IOVCTL OPTIONS ✨

The driver supports additional optional parameters for created VFs (Virtual Functions) when using iovctl(8):

• mac-addr (unicast-mac) — Set the Ethernet MAC address that the VF will use. If unspecified, the VF will use a randomly generated MAC address. 🎲
• mac-anti-spoof (bool) — Prevent the VF from sending Ethernet frames with a source address that does not match its own.
• allow-set-mac (bool) — Allow the VF to set its own Ethernet MAC address.
• allow-promisc (bool) — Allow the VF to inspect all of the traffic sent to the port.
• num-queues (uint16_t) — Specify the number of queues the VF will have. By default, this is set to the number of MSI-X vectors supported by the VF minus one.

An up to date list of parameters and their defaults can be found by using iovctl(8) with the -S option.

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✨ SUPPORT ✨

For general information and support, go to the Intel support website at: http://support.intel.com/.

If an issue is identified with this driver with a supported adapter, email all the specific information related to the issue to freebsd@intel.com. 📧

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

arp(4), iavf(4), iflib(4), netintro(4), vlan(4), ifconfig(8), iovctl(8), iflib(9)

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✨ HISTORY ✨

The ixl device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 10.1. It was converted to use iflib(9) in FreeBSD 12. glow-up era ✨

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✨ AUTHORS ✨

The ixl driver was written by Jack Vogel <jfv@freebsd.org> and Eric Joyner <erj@freebsd.org>. icons only 👑

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one shipped out under the Debian banner, dated June 27, 2020, and it's page IXL(4) in section 4 of the manual. mwah, go forth and configure your NIC 💖🦋💅