OpenBSD Journal

New ix(4) driver for Intel 82598EB PCI-E 10Gb Ethernet

Contributed by phessler on from the when-fuel-costs-more-than-network dept.

Reyk writes in...
I just imported a driver for the new Intel 82598EB PCI Express 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters. ix(4) is based on Intel's ixgbe FreeBSD driver, with a shorter name and many local changes for OpenBSD.

The driver is fully-operational and survived some long-time tests, I had to work on borrowed hardware from another company since Intel didn't provide us any cards. It is currently not sure how to maintain the driver in the future without having cards in the project.

John Ronciak from Intel told me that they don't have more cards to give away. It is purely a business case issue; a lot of customer have asked for FreeBSD, they got two cards, but nobody asked for an OpenBSD driver. He told me that they're doing the right thing for their customers. But of course I could still buy them on the open market.

Anyway, have fun with ix(4), it may become more common on the market.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.", Benjamin Franklin 1755 (Found as quote below a mail from Intel).

(Comments are closed)

Comments

  1. By Daniel Bolgheroni (dbolgheroni) dbolgheroni@gmail.com on

    I can't believe a company like Intel just can't "give away" one such card, even for their own interests.

    Even the market around my house are more "profiteer" (I don't know if this word really exists).

    Comments

    1. By Scott Learmonth (209.139.249.129) scott@relaycreek.net on

      > I can't believe a company like Intel just can't "give away" one such card, even for their own interests.
      >
      > Even the market around my house are more "profiteer" (I don't know if this word really exists).

      Agreed. I can't fathom that manufacture of these cards is so tight that a donation of 1 or 5 units would seriously damage the bottom line.

      It doesn't take too much business acumen to think that a donation of a few production units to an OS of x users (especially those using an OS with an exemplary record as a network infrastructure) would yield at least purchases in excess of the donation.


  2. By Anonymous Coward (74.13.42.102) on

    :s/told me told me/told me/g

    Comments

    1. By phessler (phessler) on first undead, then not, then undead again.

      > :s/told me told me/told me/g

      Fixed, thanks.

  3. By don cipo (doncipo) doncipo@redhat.polarhome.com on

    Dear Sir,
    Can you PLEASE import the FreeBSD age(4)driver for the Attansic/Atheros L1 gigabit ethernet controller ? These cards are found on Asus P5K series motherboards and they are now in widespread use.
    http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/current/2008-03/msg00224.html

    Comments

    1. By clvrmnky (69.28.228.76) on

      > Dear Sir,
      > Can you PLEASE import the FreeBSD age(4)driver for the Attansic/Atheros L1 gigabit ethernet controller ? These cards are found on Asus P5K series motherboards and they are now in widespread use.
      > http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/current/2008-03/msg00224.html
      >

      We considered your request, but have to respectfully decline. The hardware you mention is not cromulent enough for our purposes.

      Yours,

      Someone Important

      Comments

      1. By don cipo (doncipo) on

        There's no need to be sarcastic about... Thank you !

    2. By Joel Sing (142.244.224.72) jsing@openbsd.org on

      Porting the driver is not necessarily a problem, however without any form of hardware to test on there is little point in doing so. Otherwise we end up with a driver that we cannot test and cannot debug. Supply one of the developers with the hardware (see <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/want.html">want.html</a>) and there's a good chance that we'll be able to provide some form of support for it.

      Comments

      1. By don cipo (doncipo) on

        This issue was also disscussed on @misc http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=120942008222384&w=2

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