How to compile and install ixgbe driver in Debian's Linux

Intel's 10g network cards (for example, 82598, 82599, x540) are supported by ixgbe drivers. Modern linux distributions already have ixgbe drivers, which can be used as loadable modules. However, there are some situations where you want to compile and install the ixgbe driver on your machine, for example, when you want to experience the latest features of the ixbge driver. Similarly, a problem with the ixgbe driver that comes with the kernel by default is that you are not allowed to customize the driver parameters. If you want a fully customized ixgbe driver (such as rss, multi-queue, interrupt threshold, etc.), you need to manually compile the ixgbe driver from the source code.

Step 1: Installation prerequisites

Before installation, you need to install the matching kernel header file and development kit.

$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) $ sudo apt-get install gcc make

Step 2: Compile the ixgbe driver

Download the source code from the latest ixgbe driver.

$ wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000/files/ixgbe%20stable/3.23.2/ixgbe-3.23.2.tar.gz

Compile the ixgbe driver as follows.

$ tar xvfvz ixgbe-3.23.2.tar.gz $ cd ixgbe-3.23.2/src $ make

Step 3: Check the ixgbe driver

After compiling, you will see that ixgbe.ko has been created in the ixgbe-3.23.2/src directory. This is the ixgbe driver that will be loaded into the kernel.

Check the information of kernel module with modinfo command. Note that you need to specify the absolute path of the module file (such as. /ixgbe.ko or/home/xmoduo/ixgbe/ixgbe-3.23.2/src/ixgbe.ko). The output shows the version of the ixgbe kernel.

$ modinfo ./ixgbe.ko

filename: /home/xmodulo/ixgbe/ixgbe-3.23.2/src/ixgbe.ko version: 3.23.2 license: gpl description: intel(r) 10 gigabit pci express network driver author: intel corporation, srcversion: 2ada5e537923e983fa9dae2 alias: pci:v00008086d00001560sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d00001558sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d0000154asv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d00001557sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d0000154fsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d0000154dsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d00001528sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010f8sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d0000151csv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d00001529sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d0000152asv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010f9sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d00001514sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d00001507sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010fbsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d00001517sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010fcsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010f7sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d00001508sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010dbsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010f4sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010e1sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010f1sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010ecsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010ddsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d0000150bsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010c8sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010c7sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010c6sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v00008086d000010b6sv*sd*bc*sc*i* depends: ptp, dca vermagic: 3.11.0-19-generic smp mod_unload modversions parm: interrupttype:change interrupt mode (0=legacy, 1=msi, 2=msi-x), default intmode (deprecated) (array of int) parm: intmode:change interrupt mode (0=legacy, 1=msi, 2=msi-x), default 2 (array of int) parm: mq:disable or enable multiple queues, default 1 (array of int) parm: dca:disable or enable direct cache access, 0=disabled, 1=descriptor only, 2=descriptor and data (array of int) parm: rss:number of receive-side scaling descriptor queues, default 0=number of cpus (array of int) parm: vmdq:number of virtual machine device queues: 0/1 = disable, 2-16 enable (default=8) (array of int) parm: max_vfs:number of virtual functions: 0 = disable (default), 1-63 = enable this many vfs (array of int) parm: vepa:vepa bridge mode: 0 = veb (default), 1 = vepa (array of int) parm: interruptthrottlerate:maximum interrupts per second, per vector, (0,1,956-488281), default 1 (array of int) parm: lliport:low latency interrupt tcp port (0-65535) (array of int) parm: llipush:low latency interrupt on tcp push flag (0, 1) (array of int) parm: llisize:low latency interrupt on packet size (0-1500) (array of int) parm: llietype:low latency interrupt ethernet protocol type (array of int) parm: llivlanp:low latency interrupt on vlan priority threshold (array of int) parm: fdirpballoc:flow director packet buffer allocation level: 1 = 8k hash filters or 2k perfect filters 2 = 16k hash filters or 4k perfect filters 3 = 32k hash filters or 8k perfect filters (array of int) parm: atrsamplerate:software atr tx packet sample rate (array of int) parm: fcoe:disable or enable fcoe offload, default 1 (array of int) parm: lro:large receive offload (0,1), default 1 = on (array of int) parm: allow_unsupported_sfp:allow unsupported and untested sfp+ modules on 82599 based adapters, default 0 = disable (array of int)

Step 4: Test the ixgbe driver

Before testing the new module, you need to remove the old version of ixgbe module if it already exists in your kernel.

$ sudo rmmod ixgbe

Then use the insmod command to insert the newly compiled ixgbe module. Make sure to specify an absolute path for a module.

$ sudo insmod ./ixgbe.ko

If the above command runs successfully, no information will be displayed.

If you want, you can try adding extra parameters. For example, set the number of queues for rss to 16:

$ sudo insmod ./ixgbe.ko rss=16

Check /var/log/kern.log to see if the ixgbe driver was successfully activated. Check the Intel (r) 10 gigabit PCI express network driver in the log. The version information of ixgbe should be the same as the display of modinfo before.

sep 18 14:48:52 spongebob kernel: [684717.906254] intel(r) 10 gigabit pci express network driver - version 3.22.3

Step 5: Install the ixgbe driver

Once you verify that the new ixgbe driver can be successfully loaded, the last step is to install the driver in your system.

$ sudo make install

Ixgbe.ko will be installed under/lib/modules//kernel/drivers/net/Ethernet/Intel/ixgbe.

From this step, you can load the ixgbe driver with the following modprobe command. Note that you don't have to specify an absolute path.

$ sudo modprobe ixgbe

If you want to load the ixgbe driver at startup, you can add ixgbe at the end of /etc/modules.