1Linux Base Driver for the Intel(R) Ethernet Controller XL710 Family
  2===================================================================
  3
  4Intel i40e Linux driver.
  5Copyright(c) 2013 Intel Corporation.
  6
  7Contents
  8========
  9
 10- Identifying Your Adapter
 11- Additional Configurations
 12- Performance Tuning
 13- Known Issues
 14- Support
 15
 16
 17Identifying Your Adapter
 18========================
 19
 20The driver in this release is compatible with the Intel Ethernet
 21Controller XL710 Family.
 22
 23For more information on how to identify your adapter, go to the Adapter &
 24Driver ID Guide at:
 25
 26    http://support.intel.com/support/network/sb/CS-012904.htm
 27
 28
 29Enabling the driver
 30===================
 31
 32The driver is enabled via the standard kernel configuration system,
 33using the make command:
 34
 35     Make oldconfig/silentoldconfig/menuconfig/etc.
 36
 37The driver is located in the menu structure at:
 38
 39	-> Device Drivers
 40	  -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
 41	    -> Ethernet driver support
 42	      -> Intel devices
 43	        -> Intel(R) Ethernet Controller XL710 Family
 44
 45Additional Configurations
 46=========================
 47
 48  Generic Receive Offload (GRO)
 49  -----------------------------
 50  The driver supports the in-kernel software implementation of GRO.  GRO has
 51  shown that by coalescing Rx traffic into larger chunks of data, CPU
 52  utilization can be significantly reduced when under large Rx load.  GRO is
 53  an evolution of the previously-used LRO interface.  GRO is able to coalesce
 54  other protocols besides TCP.  It's also safe to use with configurations that
 55  are problematic for LRO, namely bridging and iSCSI.
 56
 57  Ethtool
 58  -------
 59  The driver utilizes the ethtool interface for driver configuration and
 60  diagnostics, as well as displaying statistical information. The latest
 61  ethtool version is required for this functionality.
 62
 63  The latest release of ethtool can be found from
 64  https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/network/ethtool
 65
 66  Data Center Bridging (DCB)
 67  --------------------------
 68  DCB configuration is not currently supported.
 69
 70  FCoE
 71  ----
 72  Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) hardware offload is not currently
 73  supported.
 74
 75  MAC and VLAN anti-spoofing feature
 76  ----------------------------------
 77  When a malicious driver attempts to send a spoofed packet, it is dropped by
 78  the hardware and not transmitted.  An interrupt is sent to the PF driver
 79  notifying it of the spoof attempt.
 80
 81  When a spoofed packet is detected the PF driver will send the following
 82  message to the system log (displayed by  the "dmesg" command):
 83
 84  Spoof event(s) detected on VF (n)
 85
 86  Where n=the VF that attempted to do the spoofing.
 87
 88
 89Performance Tuning
 90==================
 91
 92An excellent article on performance tuning can be found at:
 93
 94http://www.redhat.com/promo/summit/2008/downloads/pdf/Thursday/Mark_Wagner.pdf
 95
 96
 97Known Issues
 98============
 99
100
101Support
102=======
103
104For general information, go to the Intel support website at:
105
106    http://support.intel.com
107
108or the Intel Wired Networking project hosted by Sourceforge at:
109
110    http://e1000.sourceforge.net
111
112If an issue is identified with the released source code on the supported
113kernel with a supported adapter, email the specific information related
114to the issue to e1000-devel@lists.sourceforge.net and copy
115netdev@vger.kernel.org.