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IX(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual IX(4) NAME ix -- Intel 10Gb Ethernet driver SYNOPSIS To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file: device iflib device ix Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in loader.conf(5): if_ix_load="YES" DESCRIPTION The ix driver provides support for Intel(R) 10Gb Ethernet PCIe adapters. The driver supports Jumbo Frames, MSIX, TSO, and RSS. For questions related to hardware requirements, refer to the documentation supplied with your Intel 10GbE adapter. All hardware requirements listed apply to use with FreeBSD. Support for Jumbo Frames is provided via the interface MTU setting. Se- lecting an MTU larger than 1500 bytes with the ifconfig(8) utility config- ures the adapter to receive and transmit Jumbo Frames. The maximum MTU size for Jumbo Frames is 9710. This driver version supports VLANs. For information on enabling VLANs, see ifconfig(8). HARDWARE The ix driver supports Intel 10Gb Ethernet PCIe adapters, including: * Intel(R) Ethernet E610 * Intel(R) Ethernet X553 * Intel(R) Ethernet X552 * Intel(R) Ethernet X550 * Intel(R) Ethernet X540 Bypass * Intel(R) Ethernet X540 * Intel(R) Ethernet X520 Bypass (82599) * Intel(R) Ethernet X520 (82599) * Intel(R) 10 Gigabit Server Adapter (82598EB) LOADER TUNABLES The ix driver supports the following loader tunables: hw.ix.max_interrupt_rate Maximum interrupts per second. hw.ix.flow_control Default flow control used for all adapters. hw.ix.advertise_speed Default advertised speed for all adapters. hw.ix.enable_msix Enable Message Signalled Interrupts (MSI-X). hw.ix.allow_unsupported_sfp Allow unsupported small form-factor pluggable (SFP) modules. Use at your own risk. hw.ix.enable_fdir Enable Flow Director. Flow Director directs Ethernet packets to the core where the packet consuming process, application, container, or microservice is running. hw.ix.enable_rss Enable Receive-Side Scaling (RSS). When RSS is enabled, all of the receive data processing for a particular TCP connection is shared across multiple processors or processor cores. Without RSS, all of the processing is per- formed by a single processor, resulting in in- efficient system cache utilization. This has no effect if your system has only one process- ing unit. hw.ix.enable_aim Enable Adaptive Interrupt Moderation (AIM). Vary the interrupt rate over time based on the traffic for that interrupt vector. DIAGNOSTICS ix%d: Unable to allocate bus resource: memory A fatal initialization error has occurred. ix%d: Unable to allocate bus resource: interrupt A fatal initialization error has occurred. ix%d: watchdog timeout -- resetting The device has stopped responding to the network, or there is a problem with the network connection (cable). 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 <freebsd@intel.com>. SEE ALSO altq(4), arp(4), iflib(4), netintro(4), ng_ether(4), polling(4), vlan(4), ifconfig(8), sysctl(8) HISTORY The ix device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 7.0. AUTHORS The ix driver was written by Intel Corporation <freebsd@intel.com>. CAVEATS Intel (R) Flow director support is not fully implemented in FreeBSD at this time and additional work is required before those features can be sup- ported. Enabling flow director may route traffic to the wrong RX queue of the NIC, resulting in sub-optimal performance on the receive side. FreeBSD 15.0 November 10, 2025 IX(4)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | HARDWARE | LOADER TUNABLES | DIAGNOSTICS | SUPPORT | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS | CAVEATS
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