FreeBSD* Driver for the Intel® PRO/1000 Family of Adapters

Overview

Supported Adapters

Building and Installation

Speed and Duplex Configuration

Additional Configurations

Known Limitations

Support


Overview

This file describes the FreeBSD* driver, version 1.7.x, for the Intel® PRO/1000 Family of Adapters. This driver has been developed for use with FreeBSD, version 4.7 and later.

For questions related to hardware requirements, refer to the documentation supplied with your Intel PRO/1000 adapter. All hardware requirements listed apply for use with FreeBSD.


Supported Adapters

The following Intel network adapters are compatible with the drivers in this release:

Controller Adapter Name Board IDs
82542 PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter 700262-xxx, 717037-xxx
82543 PRO/1000 F Server Adapter 738640-xxx, A38888-xxx, A06512-xxx
82543 PRO/1000 T Server Adapter A19845-xxx, A33948-xxx
82544 PRO/1000 XT Server Adapter A51580-xxx
82544 PRO/1000 XF Server Adapter A50484-xxx
82544 PRO/1000 T Desktop Adapter A62947-xxx
82540
82541
PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter A78408-xxx
C91016-xxx
82545 PRO/1000 MT Server Adapter A92165-xxx
82545 PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter A91622-xxx
82545 PRO/1000 MF Server Adapter (LX) A91624-xxx
82546 PRO/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter A92111-xxx
82546 PRO/1000 MF Dual Port Server Adapter A91620-xxx
82546EB   PRO/1000 MT Quad Port Server Adapter C11227-xxx
82547 Pro/1000 CT Network Connection  

To verify that your Intel adapter is supported, find the board ID number on the adapter. Look for a label that has a barcode and a number in the format of 123456-001 (six digits hyphen three digits). Match this to the list of numbers above.

For more information on how to identify your adapter, go to the Adapter & Driver ID Guide at:

http://support.intel.com/support/network/adapter/pro100/21397.htm

For the latest Intel network drivers for FreeBSD, see:

http://appsr.intel.com/scripts-df/support_intel.asp

Building and Installation

NOTE: The driver can be installed as a dynamic loadable kernel module or compiled into the kernel. You must have kernel sources installed in order to compile the driver module.

In the instructions below, x.x.x is the driver version as indicated in the name of the driver tar file.

  1. Move the base driver tar file to the directory of your choice. For example, use /home/username/em or /usr/local/src/em.

  2. Untar/unzip the archive:

    tar xvfz em-x.x.x.tar.gz

    This will create an em-x.x.x directory.

  3. To create a loadable module, perform the following steps.

    NOTE: To compile the driver into the kernel, proceed to step 4.
    1. To compile the module

      cd em-x.x.x
      make
       
    2. To install the compiled module in system directory:

      make install

    3. If you want the driver to load automatically when the system is booted:

      1. Follow steps a and b above to compile and install the module

      2. Edit /boot/loader.conf, and add the following line.

        if_em_load="YES"
  4. To compile the driver into the kernel, enter:

    cd em-x.x.x/src
    cp if_em* /usr/src/sys/dev/em
    cp Makefile.kernel /usr/src/sys/modules/em/Makefile

    Edit the /usr/src/sys/conf/files.i386 file, and add the following lines:

               dev/em/if_em.c optional em

    dev/em/if_em_hw.c optional em

    Remove the following lines from the /usr/src/sys/conf/files.i386 file, if they exist:

    dev/em/if_em_fx_hw.c optional em
    dev/em/if_em_phy.c optional em

    Edit the kernel configuration file (i.e., GENERIC or MYKERNEL) in /usr/src/sys/i386/conf, and ensure the following line is present:

    device em

    Compile and install the kernel. The system must be rebooted for the kernel updates to take effect. For additional information on compiling the kernel, consult the FreeBSD operating system documentation.

  5. To assign an IP address to the interface, enter the following:

    ifconfig em<interface_num> <IP_address>

  6. Verify that the interface works. Enter the following, where <IP_address> is the IP address for another machine on the same subnet as the interface that is being tested:

    ping <IP_address>

  7. To configure the IP address to remain after reboot, edit /etc/rc.conf, and create the appropriate ifconfig_em<interface_num> entry:

    ifconfig_em<interface_num>="<ifconfig_settings>"

    Example usage:

    ifconfig_em0="inet 192.168.10.1 netmask 255.255.255.0"

    NOTE: For assistance, see the ifconfig man page.

Speed and Duplex Configuration

By default, the adapter auto-negotiates the speed and duplex of the connection. If there is a specific need, the ifconfig utility can be used to configure the speed and duplex settings on the adapter. Example usage:

ifconfig em<interface_num> <IP_address> media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex

NOTE: Only use mediaopt to set the driver to full-duplex. If mediaopt is not specified and you are not running at gigabit speed, the driver defaults to half-duplex.

This driver supports the following media type options:

Media Type Description
autoselect Enables auto-negotiation for speed and duplex
10baseT/UTP Sets speed to 10 Mbps. Use the ifconfig mediaopt option to select full-duplex mode
100baseTX Sets speed to 100 Mbps. Use the ifconfig mediaopt option to select full-duplex mode
1000baseTX Sets speed to 1000 Mbps. In this case, the driver supports only full-duplex mode
1000baseSX Sets speed to 1000 Mbps. In this case, the driver supports only full-duplex mode

For more information on the ifconfig utility, see the ifconfig man page.


Additional Configurations

The driver supports Transmit/Receive Checksum Offload and Jumbo Frames on all but the 82542-based adapters. For specific adapters, refer to the Supported Adapters section.

Jumbo Frames

To enable Jumbo Frames, use the ifconfig utility to increase the MTU beyond 1500 bytes.

NOTES: Only enable Jumbo Frames if your network infrastructure, including switches, supports them.
The Jumbo Frames setting on the switch must be set to at least 22 bytes larger than that of the adapter.

The Jumbo Frames MTU range for Intel Adapters is 1500 to 16114. The default MTU range is 1500. To modify the setting, enter the following:

ifconfig em<interface_num> <hostname or IP address> mtu 9000

To confirm an interface's MTU value, use the ifconfig command. To confirm the MTU used between two specific devices, use:

route get <destination_IP_address>

VLANs

To create a new VLAN pseudo-interface:

ifconfig <vlan_name> create

To associate the VLAN pseudo-interface with a physical interface and assign an IP address, netmask, and VLAN ID:

ifconfig <vlan_name> <ip_address> netmask <subnet_mask> vlan <vlan_id> vlandev <physical_interface>

Example:

ifconfig vlan10 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 vlan10 vlandev em0

In this example, all packets will be marked on egress with  802.1Q VLAN tags, specifying a VLAN ID of 10.

To remove a VLAN pseudo-interface:

ifconfig <vlan_name> destroy

Polling

To enable polling in the driver, add the following options to the kernel configuration, and then recompile the kernel:

options DEVICE_POLLING
options HZ=1000

At runtime, use the following command to turn on polling mode. Similarly, turn off polling mode by setting the variable to 0:

sysctl kern.polling.enable=1
NOTES: DEVICE POLLING is only valid for non-SMP kernels.
The driver has to be built into the kernel for DEVICE POLLING to be enabled in the driver.

Checksum Offload

Checksum offloading can be enabled or disabled using ifconfig.  Both transmit and receive offloading will be either enabled or disabled together. You cannot enable/disable one without the other.

To enable checksum offloading:

ifconfig <interface_num> rxcsum

To disable checksum offloading:

ifconfig <interface_num> -rxcsum

To confirm the current setting:

ifconfig <interface_num>

Look for the presence or absence of the following line:

options=3 <RXCSUM,TXCSUM>


Known Limitations

There are known performance issues with this driver when running UDP traffic with Jumbo Frames. Intel recommends not using Jumbo Frames for UDP traffic.

82541/82547 can't link or is slow to link with some link partners

There is a known compatibility issue with 82541/82547 and some switches where a link will not be established, or will be slow to establish. In
particular, these switches are known to be incompatible with 82541/82547:

            Planex FXG-08TE
            I-O Data ETG-SH8

To workaround this issue, the driver can be compiled with an override of the PHY's master/slave setting. Forcing master or forcing slave mode will
improve time-to-link.

Edit ./em.x.x.x/src/if_em.h to remove the #define EM_MASTER_SLAVE  from within the comments.

            /* #define EM_MASTER_SLAVE 2 */
            #define EM_MASTER_SLAVE 2

Use one of the following options:
            0 = Hardware default
            1 = Master mode
            2 = Slave mode
            3 = Auto master/slave

Recompile the module (refer to step 3 above)

a. To compile the module

            cd em-x.x.x
            make clean
            make

b. To install the compiled module in system directory:

            make install


Support

For general information and support, go to the Intel support website at:

http://support.intel.com

If an issue is identified with the released source code on the supported kernel with a supported adapter, email the specific information related to the issue to freebsdnic@mailbox.intel.com.


Last modified on 11/11/03 1:32p Revision 31