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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 documenta- tion 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. Selecting an MTU larger than 1500 bytes with the ifconfig(8) utility configures the adapter to receive and transmit Jumbo Frames. The maxi- mum 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 plug- gable (SFP) modules. Use at your own risk. hw.ix.enable_fdir Enable Flow Director. Flow Director di- rects 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 performed by a single processor, resulting in inefficient system cache utilization. This has no effect if your system has only one processing unit. hw.ix.enable_aim Enable Adaptive Interrupt Moderation (AIM). Vary the interrupt rate over time based on the traffic for that interrupt vector. SYSCTL VARIABLES The ix driver supports the following sysctl(8) variables: dev.ix.?.debug.dump.clusters Specify a bitmask to select firmware event clusters to be included in the debug dump. Possible values include: 0 All clusters excluding Manageability Transac- tions 0x1 Link cluster 0x2 Full CSR Space exclud- ing RCW registers This feature is only supported on E610 devices. dev.ix.?.debug.dump.dump Specify 1 to generate a per- device debugging snapshot. Output must be redirected to a file and decoded by Intel Cus- tomer Support. This feature is only supported on E610. dev.ix.?.debug.fw_log.severity.<module> Specify firmware logging ver- bosity level for the specified module. Available levels in- clude: 0 none 1 error 2 warning 3 normal 4 verbose Supported modules: general, ctrl, link, link_topo, dnl, i2c, sdp, mdio, adminq, hdma, lldp, dcbx, dcb, xlr, nvm, auth, vpd, iosf, parser, sw, scheduler, txq, acl, post, watchdog, task_dispatch, mng, synce, health, tsdrv, pfreg, mdlver. This feature is only supported on E610 devices. dev.ix.?.debug.fw_log.register Specify 1 to apply per-device firmware logging configura- tion. This feature is only supported on E610 devices. dev.ix.?.debug.fw_log.on_load Enable firmware logging during driver initialization when set via kenv(1). This feature is only supported on E610 devices. 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 initializa- tion 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 (ca- ble). 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 sup- ported 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 supported. Enabling flow director may route traffic to the wrong RX queue of the NIC, resulting in sub-optimal performance on the receive side. FreeBSD ports 15.1 November 10, 2025 IX(4)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | HARDWARE | LOADER TUNABLES | SYSCTL VARIABLES | DIAGNOSTICS | SUPPORT | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS | CAVEATS
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