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<table class="head">
<tr>
<td class="head-ltitle">IX(4)</td>
<td class="head-vol">Device Drivers Manual</td>
<td class="head-rtitle">IX(4)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<div class="manual-text">
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="NAME"><a class="permalink" href="#NAME">NAME</a></h1>
<p class="Pp"><code class="Nm">ix</code> — <span class="Nd">Intel 10Gb
Ethernet driver</span></p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="SYNOPSIS"><a class="permalink" href="#SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines
in your kernel configuration file:</p>
<div class="Bd Pp Bd-indent"><code class="Cd">device iflib</code>
<br/>
<code class="Cd">device ix</code></div>
<p class="Pp">Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place
the following line in <a class="Xr">loader.conf(5)</a>:</p>
<div class="Bd Pp Bd-indent Li">
<pre>if_ix_load="YES"</pre>
</div>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="DESCRIPTION"><a class="permalink" href="#DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">ix</code> driver provides support for
Intel(R) 10Gb Ethernet PCIe adapters. The driver supports Jumbo Frames,
MSIX, TSO, and RSS.</p>
<p class="Pp">For questions related to hardware requirements, refer to the
documentation supplied with your Intel 10GbE adapter. All hardware
requirements listed apply to use with <span class="Ux">FreeBSD</span>.</p>
<p class="Pp">Support for Jumbo Frames is provided via the interface MTU
setting. Selecting an MTU larger than 1500 bytes with the
<a class="Xr">ifconfig(8)</a> utility configures the adapter to receive and
transmit Jumbo Frames. The maximum MTU size for Jumbo Frames is 9710.</p>
<p class="Pp">This driver version supports VLANs. For information on enabling
VLANs, see <a class="Xr">ifconfig(8)</a>.</p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="HARDWARE"><a class="permalink" href="#HARDWARE">HARDWARE</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">ix</code> driver supports Intel 10Gb Ethernet
PCIe adapters, including:</p>
<p class="Pp"></p>
<ul class="Bl-bullet Bl-compact">
<li>Intel(R) Ethernet E610</li>
<li>Intel(R) Ethernet X553</li>
<li>Intel(R) Ethernet X552</li>
<li>Intel(R) Ethernet X550</li>
<li>Intel(R) Ethernet X540 Bypass</li>
<li>Intel(R) Ethernet X540</li>
<li>Intel(R) Ethernet X520 Bypass (82599)</li>
<li>Intel(R) Ethernet X520 (82599)</li>
<li>Intel(R) 10 Gigabit Server Adapter (82598EB)</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="LOADER_TUNABLES"><a class="permalink" href="#LOADER_TUNABLES">LOADER
TUNABLES</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">ix</code> driver supports the following
loader tunables:</p>
<dl class="Bl-tag">
<dt id="hw.ix.max_interrupt_rate"><var class="Va">hw.ix.max_interrupt_rate</var></dt>
<dd>Maximum interrupts per second.</dd>
<dt id="hw.ix.flow_control"><var class="Va">hw.ix.flow_control</var></dt>
<dd>Default flow control used for all adapters.</dd>
<dt id="hw.ix.advertise_speed"><var class="Va">hw.ix.advertise_speed</var></dt>
<dd>Default advertised speed for all adapters.</dd>
<dt id="hw.ix.enable_msix"><var class="Va">hw.ix.enable_msix</var></dt>
<dd>Enable Message Signalled Interrupts (MSI-X).</dd>
<dt id="hw.ix.allow_unsupported_sfp"><var class="Va">hw.ix.allow_unsupported_sfp</var></dt>
<dd>Allow unsupported small form-factor pluggable (SFP) modules. Use at your
own risk.</dd>
<dt id="hw.ix.enable_fdir"><var class="Va">hw.ix.enable_fdir</var></dt>
<dd>Enable Flow Director. Flow Director directs Ethernet packets to the core
where the packet consuming process, application, container, or
microservice is running.</dd>
<dt id="hw.ix.enable_rss"><var class="Va">hw.ix.enable_rss</var></dt>
<dd>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.</dd>
<dt id="hw.ix.enable_aim"><var class="Va">hw.ix.enable_aim</var></dt>
<dd>Enable Adaptive Interrupt Moderation (AIM). Vary the interrupt rate over
time based on the traffic for that interrupt vector.</dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="SYSCTL_VARIABLES"><a class="permalink" href="#SYSCTL_VARIABLES">SYSCTL
VARIABLES</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">ix</code> driver supports the following
<a class="Xr">sysctl(8)</a> variables:</p>
<dl class="Bl-tag">
<dt id="dev.ix.?.debug.dump.clusters"><var class="Va">dev.ix.?.debug.dump.clusters</var></dt>
<dd>Specify a bitmask to select firmware event clusters to be included in the
debug dump. Possible values include:
<p class="Pp"></p>
<dl class="Bl-tag Bl-compact">
<dt>0</dt>
<dd>All clusters excluding Manageability Transactions</dd>
<dt>0x1</dt>
<dd>Link cluster</dd>
<dt>0x2</dt>
<dd>Full CSR Space excluding RCW registers</dd>
</dl>
<p class="Pp">This feature is only supported on E610 devices.</p>
</dd>
<dt id="dev.ix.?.debug.dump.dump"><var class="Va">dev.ix.?.debug.dump.dump</var></dt>
<dd>Specify 1 to generate a per-device debugging snapshot. Output must be
redirected to a file and decoded by Intel Customer Support.
<p class="Pp">This feature is only supported on E610.</p>
</dd>
<dt id="dev.ix.?.debug.fw_log.severity._module_"><var class="Va">dev.ix.?.debug.fw_log.severity.<module></var></dt>
<dd>Specify firmware logging verbosity level for the specified module.
Available levels include:
<p class="Pp"></p>
<dl class="Bl-tag Bl-compact">
<dt>0</dt>
<dd>none</dd>
<dt>1</dt>
<dd>error</dd>
<dt>2</dt>
<dd>warning</dd>
<dt>3</dt>
<dd>normal</dd>
<dt>4</dt>
<dd>verbose</dd>
</dl>
<p class="Pp">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.</p>
<p class="Pp">This feature is only supported on E610 devices.</p>
</dd>
<dt id="dev.ix.?.debug.fw_log.register"><var class="Va">dev.ix.?.debug.fw_log.register</var></dt>
<dd>Specify 1 to apply per-device firmware logging configuration.
<p class="Pp">This feature is only supported on E610 devices.</p>
</dd>
<dt id="dev.ix.?.debug.fw_log.on_load"><var class="Va">dev.ix.?.debug.fw_log.on_load</var></dt>
<dd>Enable firmware logging during driver initialization when set via
<a class="Xr">kenv(1)</a>.
<p class="Pp">This feature is only supported on E610 devices.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="DIAGNOSTICS"><a class="permalink" href="#DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></h1>
<dl class="Bl-diag">
<dt>ix%d: Unable to allocate bus resource: memory</dt>
<dd>A fatal initialization error has occurred.</dd>
<dt>ix%d: Unable to allocate bus resource: interrupt</dt>
<dd>A fatal initialization error has occurred.</dd>
<dt>ix%d: watchdog timeout -- resetting</dt>
<dd>The device has stopped responding to the network, or there is a problem
with the network connection (cable).</dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="SUPPORT"><a class="permalink" href="#SUPPORT">SUPPORT</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">For general information and support, go to the Intel support
website at: <span class="Pa">http://support.intel.com</span>.</p>
<p class="Pp">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
<<a class="Mt" href="mailto:freebsd@intel.com">freebsd@intel.com</a>>.</p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="SEE_ALSO"><a class="permalink" href="#SEE_ALSO">SEE
ALSO</a></h1>
<p class="Pp"><a class="Xr">altq(4)</a>, <a class="Xr">arp(4)</a>,
<a class="Xr">iflib(4)</a>, <a class="Xr">netintro(4)</a>,
<a class="Xr">ng_ether(4)</a>, <a class="Xr">polling(4)</a>,
<a class="Xr">vlan(4)</a>, <a class="Xr">ifconfig(8)</a>,
<a class="Xr">sysctl(8)</a></p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="HISTORY"><a class="permalink" href="#HISTORY">HISTORY</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">ix</code> device driver first appeared in
<span class="Ux">FreeBSD 7.0</span>.</p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="AUTHORS"><a class="permalink" href="#AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">ix</code> driver was written by
<span class="An">Intel Corporation</span>
<<a class="Mt" href="mailto:freebsd@intel.com">freebsd@intel.com</a>>.</p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="CAVEATS"><a class="permalink" href="#CAVEATS">CAVEATS</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">Intel (R) Flow director support is not fully implemented in
<span class="Ux">FreeBSD</span> at this time and additional work is required
before those features can be supported.</p>
<p class="Pp">Enabling flow director may route traffic to the wrong RX queue of
the NIC, resulting in sub-optimal performance on the receive side.</p>
</section>
</div>
<table class="foot">
<tr>
<td class="foot-date">November 10, 2025</td>
<td class="foot-os">FreeBSD 15.0</td>
</tr>
</table>
|
