--- /dev/null
+Linux Base Driver for 10 Gigabit PCI Express Intel(R) Network Connection
+========================================================================
+
+March 10, 2009
+
+
+Contents
+========
+
+- In This Release
+- Identifying Your Adapter
+- Building and Installation
+- Additional Configurations
+- Support
+
+
+
+In This Release
+===============
+
+This file describes the ixgbe Linux Base Driver for the 10 Gigabit PCI
+Express Intel(R) Network Connection. This driver includes support for
+Itanium(R)2-based systems.
+
+For questions related to hardware requirements, refer to the documentation
+supplied with your 10 Gigabit adapter. All hardware requirements listed apply
+to use with Linux.
+
+The following features are available in this kernel:
+ - Native VLANs
+ - Channel Bonding (teaming)
+ - SNMP
+ - Generic Receive Offload
+ - Data Center Bridging
+
+Channel Bonding documentation can be found in the Linux kernel source:
+/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt
+
+Ethtool, lspci, and ifconfig can be used to display device and driver
+specific information.
+
+
+Identifying Your Adapter
+========================
+
+This driver supports devices based on the 82598 controller and the 82599
+controller.
+
+For specific information on identifying which adapter you have, please visit:
+
+ http://support.intel.com/support/network/sb/CS-008441.htm
+
+
+Building and Installation
+=========================
+
+select m for "Intel(R) 10GbE PCI Express adapters support" located at:
+ Location:
+ -> Device Drivers
+ -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
+ -> Ethernet (10000 Mbit) (NETDEV_10000 [=y])
+
+1. make modules & make modules_install
+
+2. Load the module:
+
+# modprobe ixgbe
+
+ The insmod command can be used if the full
+ path to the driver module is specified. For example:
+
+ insmod /lib/modules/<KERNEL VERSION>/kernel/drivers/net/ixgbe/ixgbe.ko
+
+ With 2.6 based kernels also make sure that older ixgbe drivers are
+ removed from the kernel, before loading the new module:
+
+ rmmod ixgbe; modprobe ixgbe
+
+3. Assign an IP address to the interface by entering the following, where
+ x is the interface number:
+
+ ifconfig ethx <IP_address>
+
+4. 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>
+
+
+Additional Configurations
+=========================
+
+ Viewing Link Messages
+ ---------------------
+ Link messages will not be displayed to the console if the distribution is
+ restricting system messages. In order to see network driver link messages on
+ your console, set dmesg to eight by entering the following:
+
+ dmesg -n 8
+
+ NOTE: This setting is not saved across reboots.
+
+
+ Jumbo Frames
+ ------------
+ The driver supports Jumbo Frames for all adapters. Jumbo Frames support is
+ enabled by changing the MTU to a value larger than the default of 1500.
+ The maximum value for the MTU is 16110. Use the ifconfig command to
+ increase the MTU size. For example:
+
+ ifconfig ethx mtu 9000 up
+
+ The maximum MTU setting for Jumbo Frames is 16110. This value coincides
+ with the maximum Jumbo Frames size of 16128.
+
+ Generic Receive Offload, aka GRO
+ --------------------------------
+ The driver supports the in-kernel software implementation of GRO. GRO has
+ shown that by coalescing Rx traffic into larger chunks of data, CPU
+ utilization can be significantly reduced when under large Rx load. GRO is an
+ evolution of the previously-used LRO interface. GRO is able to coalesce
+ other protocols besides TCP. It's also safe to use with configurations that
+ are problematic for LRO, namely bridging and iSCSI.
+
+ GRO is enabled by default in the driver. Future versions of ethtool will
+ support disabling and re-enabling GRO on the fly.
+
+
+ Data Center Bridging, aka DCB
+ -----------------------------
+
+ DCB is a configuration Quality of Service implementation in hardware.
+ It uses the VLAN priority tag (802.1p) to filter traffic. That means
+ that there are 8 different priorities that traffic can be filtered into.
+ It also enables priority flow control which can limit or eliminate the
+ number of dropped packets during network stress. Bandwidth can be
+ allocated to each of these priorities, which is enforced at the hardware
+ level.
+
+ To enable DCB support in ixgbe, you must enable the DCB netlink layer to
+ allow the userspace tools (see below) to communicate with the driver.
+ This can be found in the kernel configuration here:
+
+ -> Networking support
+ -> Networking options
+ -> Data Center Bridging support
+
+ Once this is selected, DCB support must be selected for ixgbe. This can
+ be found here:
+
+ -> Device Drivers
+ -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
+ -> Ethernet (10000 Mbit) (NETDEV_10000 [=y])
+ -> Intel(R) 10GbE PCI Express adapters support
+ -> Data Center Bridging (DCB) Support
+
+ After these options are selected, you must rebuild your kernel and your
+ modules.
+
+ In order to use DCB, userspace tools must be downloaded and installed.
+ The dcbd tools can be found at:
+
+ http://e1000.sf.net
+
+
+ Ethtool
+ -------
+ The driver utilizes the ethtool interface for driver configuration and
+ diagnostics, as well as displaying statistical information. Ethtool
+ version 3.0 or later is required for this functionality.
+
+ The latest release of ethtool can be found from
+ http://sourceforge.net/projects/gkernel.
+
+
+ NAPI
+ ----
+
+ NAPI (Rx polling mode) is supported in the ixgbe driver. NAPI is enabled
+ by default in the driver.
+
+ See www.cyberus.ca/~hadi/usenix-paper.tgz for more information on NAPI.
+
+
+Support
+=======
+
+For general information, go to the Intel support website at:
+
+ http://support.intel.com
+
+or the Intel Wired Networking project hosted by Sourceforge at:
+
+ http://e1000.sourceforge.net
+
+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 e1000-devel@lists.sf.net
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