Installing and Setting Up the Device Driver Software

C H A P T E R 2

The ixgbe device driver software comes bundled with Solaris software. This chapter explains how to verify the ixgbe device driver software is present on an x86 or SPARC system that uses the Solaris OS, and how to download and install the ixgbe driver on Solaris, Linux and Microsoft Windows systems. This chapter contains the following sections:

Verifying, Installing, and Removing the Driver on a Solaris Platform

Downloading, Installing and Removing the Driver on a Linux Platform

Downloading, Installing and Removing the Driver on a Microsoft Windows Platform

Verifying, Installing, and Removing the Driver on a Solaris Platform

Note - Please see the latest Release Notes for information about which versions of the Solaris OS support the driver for this product.

The driver for this product comes bundled with the versions of the Solaris OS that support it. Therefore, downloading of the driver is not required.

Check the version of the driver to ensure the Sun PCI Express card is properly loaded and is recognized by the Solaris OS.

To Check the Driver Version on a Solaris Platform

Check that the version of the ixgbe driver is no older than 1.0.4:

modinfo | grep ixgbe 
226 fffffffff3f0f000  151b8  67   1  ixgbe (Intel 10Gb Ethernet 1.0.4)

Note - If the version number is older than 1.0.4, you must install the latest driver patch. See Patches and Updates.

To Install the Driver for a Solaris Platform

The driver comes bundled with the Solaris OS. However, check for and install the latest patches.

Apply the necessary patch to get the latest driver.

# patchadd /absolute_path/patchID

See patchadd(1M).

To Remove the Driver for a Solaris Platform

Remove the driver.

# pkgrm SUNWixgbe

See pkgrm(1M).

Downloading, Installing and Removing the Driver on a Linux Platform

If your system uses the RedHat or SuSe Linux operating system, you must download the ixgbe device driver to install it.

To Download the Driver for a Linux Platform

1. Log in to your system.

2. With a browser, go to this location:

http://support.intel.com/support/network/adapter/10gbe/srdualserverxpr/

3. Select the following product:

Intel 10 Gigabit XF SR Dual Port ExpressModule

4. Select this option:

Download drivers and software

5. Select Linux as the operating system.

6. Locate the following driver and select Download:

Network Adapter Driver for 10 GbE PCI-E Based Network Connections for Linux

7. Review and accept the software license agreement.

8. Select this option:

Download Network Adapter Driver for 10 GbE PCI-E Based Network Connections for Linux

The download begins. The file named ixgbe-x.x.x.x.tar.gz is saved in the ~/Desktop directory of your system.

Note - The primary driver link is buildable source archive that works with Linux 2.6.x kernels only and requires that the currently running kernel match the SRC RPM kernel files and headers in order to build the driver. See the bundled README file in the unpacked archive from Intel for more information.

To Install the Driver for a Linux Platform

For this procedure, assume the file is file is named ixgbe-1.3.16.1.tar.gz. The actual file might have different version or subversion numbers.

1. Copy the file containing the driver from ~/Desktop to /temp.

2. Uncompress and untar the file.

# tar -zxvf ixgbe-1.3.16.1.tar.gz

3. Go to the newly created src directory:

# cd /temp/ixgbe-1.3.16.1/src

4. Compile the driver source file with these commands:

# make
# make install

5. Load the ixgbe driver with the modprobe command:

# modprobe ixgbe

6. Verify that the ixgbe driver has been successfully installed with this lsmod command:

# lsmod | grep ixgbe

The output should be similar to the following:

ixgbe          118052  0

7. Check the ixgbe driver version with this modinfo command:

# modinfo ixgbe | grep ver

For example, the output might be the following:

filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.18-53.el5/kernel/drivers/net/ixgbe/ixgbe.ko
version:        1.3.16.1-lro
description:    Intel(R) 10 Gigabit PCI Express Network Driver
srcversion:     5CFF6AEBA251050F8A4B746
vermagic:       2.6.18-53.el5 SMP mod_unload gcc-4.1

To Remove the Driver From a Linux Platform

Use the rmmod command:

# rmmod ixgbe

Downloading, Installing and Removing the Driver on a Microsoft Windows Platform

If your system uses the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system, perform the following procedures to download and install the device driver.

To Download and Install the Driver on a Microsoft Windows Platform

1. Log in to your system.

2. With a browser, go to this location:

http://support.intel.com/support/network/adapter/10gbe/srdualserverxpr/

3. Select the following product:

Intel 10 Gigabit XF SR Dual Port ExpressModule

4. Select this option:

Download drivers and software

5. Select one of the following as the operating system:

For a 64-bit driver: Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition

For a 32-bit driver: Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition

6. Locate one of the following and select Download next to it:

For a 64-bit driver: Network Adapter Driver for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition or Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition

For a 32-bit driver: Network Adapter Drivers for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003

7. Review and accept the software license agreement.

8. Select one of the following to start the download:

Download Network Adapter Driver for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition or Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition

Download Network Adapter Drivers for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003

The download begins.

9. Click on the following exe files to install the driver:

For a 64-bit driver: PROEM64T.exe

For a 32-bit driver: PRO2KXP.exe

10. Follow the instructions in the installation wizard.

11. If the Found New Hardware Wizard screen is displayed, click Cancel.

The autorun automatically runs after you have extracted the files.

To Remove the Driver From a Microsoft Windows Platform

1. From the Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.

2. Select Intel PRO Network Connections Drivers.

3. Click Add/Remove.

4. When the confirmation dialog displays, click OK.