FreeBSD* Driver for the Intel® PRO/1000 Family of Adapters

Overview

This file describes the FreeBSD* driver, version 1.2.x, for the Intel® PRO/1000 Family of Adapters. This driver has been developed for use with FreeBSD, version 4.5.

The driver supports Transmit/Receive Checksum Offload and Jumbo Frames only on 82540, 82543 and 82544-based adapters. For specific adapters, refer to the Supported Adapters section below.

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 FreeBSD.

Supported Adapters

The following Intel network adapters are compatible with the drivers in this release:

Controller	Adapter Name	Board IDs
82540	PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter	A78408-xxx
82542	PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter	700262-xxx, 717037-xxx
82543	PRO/1000 F Server Adapter	738640-xxx, A38888-xxx, A06512-xxx
82543	PRO/1000 T Server Adapter	A19845-xxx, A33948-xxx
82544	PRO/1000 XT Server Adapter	A51580-xxx
82544	PRO/1000 XF Server Adapter	A50484-xxx
82544	PRO/1000 T Desktop Adapter	A62947-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 FreeBSD, see:

http://appsr.intel.com/scripts-df/support_intel.asp

Building and Installation

NOTE: You must have kernel sources installed in order to compile the driver module.

In the instructions below, x.x.x is the driver version as indicated in the name of the driver tar.

Move the base driver tar file to the directory of your choice. For example, use /home/username/em or /usr/local/src/em.
Untar/unzip the archive:
tar xfz em-x.x.x.tar.gz
To load the driver onto a running system:

cd em-x.x.x/modules
kldload ./if_em.ko
To assign an IP address to the interface, enter the following:

ifconfig em<interface_num> <IP_address>
Verify that the interface works. Enter the following, where <IP_address> is the IP address for another machine on the same subnet as the interface that is being tested:

ping <IP_address>
If you want the driver to load automatically when the system is booted:

cd em-x.x.x/modules
cp if_em.ko /modules

Edit /boot/loader.conf, and add the following line:

if_em_load="YES"

OR

compile the driver into the kernel (see item 7).

Edit /etc/rc.conf, and create the appropriate ifconfig_em<interface_num> entry:

ifconfig_em<interface_num>="<ifconfig_settings>"

Example usage:

ifconfig_em0="inet 192.168.10.1 netmask 255.255.255.0"

NOTE: For assistance, see the ifconfig man page.
If you want to compile the driver into the kernel, enter:

mkdir /usr/src/sys/dev/em
cd em-x.x.x/src
cp if_em* /usr/src/sys/dev/em
mkdir /usr/src/sys/modules/em
cp Makefile /usr/src/sys/modules/em

Edit Makefile at /usr/src/sys/modules to add the em subdirectory.

Edit your config file, and add the following line:

device em

Edit your config file, and remove the 'device wx' line from the config file.

Edit the /usr/src/sys/conf/files.i386 file, and add the following lines:

dev/em/if_em.c optional em
dev/em/if_em_fxhw.c optional em
dev/em/if_em_phy.c optional em

Compile and install the kernel.

Speed and Duplex Configuration

By default, the adapter auto-negotiates the speed and duplex of the connection. If there is a specific need, the ifconfig utility can be used to configure the speed and duplex settings on the adapter. Example usage:

ifconfig em<interface_num> <IP_address> media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex

NOTE: Only use mediaopt to set the driver to full-duplex. If mediaopt is not specified and you are not running at gigabit speed, the driver defaults to half-duplex.

This driver supports the following media type options:

Media Type	Description
autoselect	Enables auto-negotiation for speed and duplex
10baseT/UTP	Sets speed to 10 Mbps. Use the ifconfig mediaopt option to select full-duplex mode
100baseTX	Sets speed to 100 Mbps. Use the ifconfig mediaopt option to select full-duplex mode
1000baseTX	Sets speed to 1000 Mbps. In this case, the driver supports only full-duplex mode
1000baseSX	Sets speed to 1000 Mbps. In this case, the driver supports only full-duplex mode

For more information on the ifconfig utility, see the ifconfig man page.

Additional Configurations

To enable Jumbo Frames, use the ifconfig utility to increase the MTU beyond 1500 bytes.

NOTE: Only enable Jumbo Frames if your network infrastructure supports them.

The MTU range for Jumbo Frames is 1500 to 16114. For example, enter the following:

ifconfig em<interface_num> mtu 9000

Known Limitations

There are known performance problems with this driver when running UDP traffic with Jumbo Frames. Intel recommends not using Jumbo Frames for UDP traffic.

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 freebsdnic@mailbox.intel.com.