Linux Driver for the Intel(R) PRO/1000 Family of Adapters ========================================================= August 15, 2001 Contents ======== - In This Release - Supported Adapters - Building and Installation - Command Line Parameters - Speed and Duplex Configuration - Additional Configurations - Known Issue - Support - License In This Release =============== This file describes the Linux driver, version 3.1.x, for the Intel(R) PRO/1000 family of server and desktop adapters. This driver is known to build properly on 2.2.x kernels through 2.2.19 and on the 2.4.x kernel through 2.4.6. This driver includes support for Itanium(TM)-based systems. The Intel PRO/1000 driver is only supported as a loadable module at this time. Intel is not supplying patches against the kernel source to allow for static linking of the driver. For questions related to hardware requirements, refer to the documentation supplied with your Intel PRO/1000 adapter. All hardware requirements listed apply to use with Linux. This release version includes hooks for Intel(R) ANS, the Intel(R) Advanced Networking Services driver. Some base driver versions within specific distributions (including Red Hat*) do not include these hooks. This driver also includes the zero copy feature to provide faster information throughput. By default, zero copy is on if using a kernel that supports it. Zero copy is not supported on the original PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter. Supported Adapters ================== The following Intel network adapters are compatible with the drivers in this release: Adapter Name Board IDs ------------ --------- PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter 700262-xxx, 717037-xxx PRO/1000 F Server Adapter 738640-xxx, A38888-xxx, A06512-xxx PRO/1000 T Server Adapter A19845-xxx, A33948-xxx PRO/1000 XT Server Adapter A51580-xxx To verify 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 Linux, please see: http://support.intel.com/support/network/adapter/1000/index.htm Building and Installation ========================= NOTE: For the build to work properly, the currently running kernel MUST match the version and configuration of the installed kernel sources. Also if you have just recompiled the kernel, reboot the system now. 1. Move the base driver tar file to the directory of your choice. For example, use /home/username/e1000 or /usr/local/src/e1000 2. untar/unzip archive tar zxf e1000-x.x.x.tar.gz 3. Change to the driver src directory cd e1000-x.x.x/src/ 4. Compile the driver module make install The binary will be installed as: For Linux 2.2.x systems: /lib/modules/[KERNEL_VERSION]/net/e1000.o For Linux 2.4.x systems: /lib/modules/[KERNEL_VERSION]/kernel/drivers/net/e1000.o 5. Install the module insmod e1000 [parameter=value] 6. ifconfig eth# , where # is interface number 7. Verify that the interface works ping To build a binary RPM* package of this driver, run 'rpm -tb '. Replace with the specific file name of the driver. Command Line Parameters ======================= The following parameters are used by entering them on the command line with the modprobe or insmod command. For example, with two PRO/1000 PCI adapters, entering: insmod e1000 TxDescriptors=80,128 loads the e1000 driver with 80 TX resources for the first adapter and 128 TX resources for the second adapter. Speed (Intel(R) PRO/1000 T and PRO/1000 XT server adapters only) Valid Range: 0, 10, 100, 1000 Default Value: 0 Speed forces the line speed to the specified value in megabits per second (Mbps). If this parameter is not specified or is set to 0 and the link partner is set to auto-negotiate, the board will auto-detect the correct speed. The duplex must also be set when the speed parameter is set to either 10 or 100. See the section "Speed and Duplex Configuration" in this document. Duplex (Intel(R) PRO/1000 T and PRO/1000 XT server adapters only) Valid Range: 0-2 (1=half, 2=full) Default Value: 0 If this parameter is not specified or is set to 0 and the link partner is set to auto-negotiate, the board will auto-detect the correct duplex. If the link partner is forced (either full or half), Duplex defaults to half-duplex. See the section "Speed and Duplex Configuration" in this document. AutoNeg (Intel(R) PRO/1000 T and PRO/1000 XT server adapters Only) Valid Range: 0-0x0F, 0x20-0x2F Default Value: 0x2F When this parameter is used, the speed and duplex parameters must not be specified. This parameter is a bitmap that specifies which speed and duplex settings the board advertises. See the section "Speed and Duplex Configuration" in this document. FlowControl Valid Range: 0-3 (0=none, 1=Rx only, 2=Tx only, 3=Rx&Tx) Default: 3 This parameter controls the automatic generation(Tx) and response(Rx) to Ethernet PAUSE frames. TxDescriptors Valid Range: 80-256 Default Value: 256 This value is the number of transmit descriptors allocated by the driver. Increasing this value allows the driver to queue more transmits. Each descriptor is 16 bytes. RxDescriptors Valid Range: 80-256 Default Value: 256 This value is the number of receive descriptors allocated by the driver. Increasing this value allows the driver to buffer more incoming packets. Each descriptor is 16 bytes. A receive buffer is also allocated for each descriptor and can be either 2048, 4096, 8192, or 16384 bytes, depending on the MTU setting. TxIntDelay Valid Range: 0-65535 (0=off) Default Value: 64 This value delays the generation of transmit interrupts in units of 1.024 microseconds. Transmit interrupt reduction can improve CPU efficiency if properly tuned for specific network traffic. If the system is reporting dropped transmits, this value may be set too high causing the driver to run out of available transmit descriptors. RxIntDelay Valid Range: 0-65535 (0=off) Default Value: 64 This value delays the generation of receive interrupts in units of 1.024 microseconds. Receive interrupt reduction can improve CPU efficiency if properly tuned for specific network traffic. Increasing this value adds extra latency to frame reception and can end up decreasing the throughput of TCP traffic. If the system is reporting dropped receives, this value may be set too high, causing the driver to run out of available receive descriptors. Jumbo (Intel(R) PRO/1000 F, PRO/1000 T, and PRO/1000 XT server adapters only) Valid Range: 0-1 Default Value: 1 A value of '1' indicates that the driver should allow the use of Jumbo Frames. The actual frame size is controlled by the device MTU setting, which is configured from ifconfig. Set the switch packet size 18 units higher than the adapter size (to include the MAC header and CRC). XsumRX (Intel(R) PRO/1000 F, PRO/1000 T, and PRO/1000 XT server adapters only) Valid Range: 0-1 Default Value: 1 A value of '1' indicates that the driver should enable IP checksum offload for received packets (both UDP and TCP) to the adapter hardware. WaitForLink Valid Range: 0-1 Default Value: 1 WaitForLink controls whether or not the driver waits for a link before finishing initialization. The default value causes the driver to wait until auto-negotiation is complete (or failed) before finishing initialization and returning to the command prompt. Setting this value to '0' may cause the driver to initialize faster, but may also cause it to display incorrect link information when it loads. This is not related to speed/duplex or auto-negotiation settings. Speed and Duplex Configuration ============================== Three keywords are used to control the speed and duplex configuration of the PRO/1000 T and PRO/1000 XT server adapters. These keywords are Speed, Duplex, and AutoNeg. If the board uses a fiber interface, these keywords are ignored, and the fiber interface board only links at 1000 Mbps full-duplex. For copper-based boards, the keywords interact as follows: The default operation is auto-negotiate. The board advertises all supported speed and duplex combinations, and it links at the highest common speed and duplex mode IF the link partner is set to auto-negotiate. If Speed = 1000, limited auto-negotiation is enabled and only 1000 Mbps is advertised (The 1000BaseT spec requires auto-negotiation.) If Speed = 10 or 100, then both Speed and Duplex must be set. Auto- negotiation is disabled, and the AutoNeg parameter is ignored. Partner MUST also be forced. The AutoNeg parameter is used when more control is required over the auto-negotiation process. When this parameter is used, Speed and Duplex must not be specified. This parameter is a bitmap that specifies which speed and duplex settings are advertised to the link partner. Bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Speed (Mbps) N/A N/A 1000 N/A 100 100 10 10 Duplex Full Full Half Full Half Note that setting AutoNeg does not guarantee that the board will link at the highest specified speed or duplex mode, but the board will link at the highest possible speed/duplex of the link partner IF the link partner is also set to auto-negotiate. If the link partner is forced speed/duplex, the adapter MUST be forced to the same speed/duplex. Additional Configurations ========================= Configuring a network driver to load properly when the system is started is distribution dependent. Typically, the configuration process involves adding an alias line to /etc/modules.conf as well as editing other system startup scripts and/or configuration files. Many popular Linux distributions ship with tools to make these changes for you. To learn the proper way to configure a network device for your system, refer to your distribution documentation. If, during this process, you are asked for the driver or module name, the driver name for the PRO/1000 is 'e1000'. Some distributions of Linux display squelched system messages on the console by default. For Intel's drivers this has the effect of stopping link messages from appearing on the console. In order to see network driver link messages on your console, set dmesg to at least six by entering "dmesg -n 6" on the command line. Known Issue =========== Intel is aware that previously released e1000 drivers may hang under very specific types of heavy traffic loads. In version 3.1.2x, a workaround has been implemented that resets the adapter automatically if a hang condition is detected. This workaround ensures network traffic flow is not affected when a hang occurs. Additional workarounds or a fix will be added as they become available. 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 linux.nics@intel.com. License ======= Copyright(C) 1999 - 2001, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 3. 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