Linux
Driver SoftwareThis document describes the installation and configuration of the Linux driver and BASP driver software for the Broadcom NetXtreme™ Gigabit Ethernet Adapter and includes the following sections:
This section contains the following information:
Installing
Linux Driver Software
This section describes the Linux driver for the Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5700 series 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Network Controllers.
The current version of the Linux driver has been thoroughly tested on Red Hat
8.0 and 2.1 AS Linux distributions for i386 and other similar Linux distributions
using 2.4.x kernels.
The Linux driver is released in three packaging formats: source RPM, binary
RPM (Red Hat distributions only) and compressed tar formats. The file names
for the three packages are bcm5700-<version>.src.rpm, bcm5700-<version>.i386.rpm
and bcm5700-<version>.tar.gz, respectively. Identical source files to
build the driver are included in both RPM and TAR source packages. The tar file
contains additional utilities such as patches and driver diskette images for
network installation. The Binary RPM contains only the pre-compiled object file
for Red Hat 8.0 and 2.1 AS distributions.
The section describes the following Linux driver installations:
rpm -ivh bcm5700-<version>.src.rpm
cd /usr/src/{redhat,OpenLinux,turbo,packages,rpm
..}
rpm -bb SPECS/bcm5700.spec or rpmbuild -bb SPECS/bcm5700.spec
Note that the RPM path is different for different Linux distributions.
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NOTE – While attempting to install a source RPM you may receive the message: error: cannot create %sourcedir /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES The most likely cause is that the rpm-build package has not been installed. To rectify the situation, locate the rpm-build package on the Red Hat installation media and install it using the command: rpm -ivh rpm-build-<version>.i386.rpm Complete the installation of the source RPM as previously described.. |
rpm -ivh RPMS/i386/bcm5700-<version>.i386.rpm
Note that the --force option is needed if installing on some distributions that may already contain an older version of the driver.
The driver will be installed in one of the following paths:
2.2.x kernels:
/lib/modules/<kernel_version>/net/bcm5700.o
2.4.x kernels:
/lib/modules/<kernel_version>/kernel/drivers/net/bcm5700.o
2.4.x kernels with bcm5700 driver patched in:
/lib/modules/<kernel_version>/kernel/drivers/net/bcm/bcm5700.o
or
/lib/modules/<kernel_version>/kernel/drivers/addon/bcm5700/bcm5700.o
insmod bcm5700
tar xvzf bcm5700-<version>.tar.gz
cd src
make
insmod bcm5700.o
Note that no message should be returned if this command executes properly.
make install
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NOTE – See the RPM instructions above for the location of the installed driver. |
The binary RPM packages contain pre-compiled kernel modules for the above Red Hat Linux distributions. These modules are designed only for the default kernels on these distributions. If you have customized or rebuilt your kernel you may need to install your bcm5700 module using the source RPM package described above.
rpm -ivh bcm5700-<version>.i386.rpm
ifconfig eth# down
rmmod bcm5700
insmod bcm5700
ifconfig eth# 192.168.x.x up
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NOTE – The example above is specific to static addresses. |
To use the Red Hat kudzu hardware detection utility, a number of files containing PCI vendor and device information need to be patched with information on the BCM570x series NICs. The most recent Red Hat distributions are included. Apply the appropriate patch by running the patch command. For example, on Red Hat 8.0 for i386, apply the patch by doing the following:
patch -N -p1 -d /usr < pci-rh80-i386.patch
Run kudzu:
kudzu
Patch files are included for patching the driver into some of the latest 2.4.x kernel source trees. This step is optional and should only be done by users familiar with configuring and building the kernel. The patch will modify the orginal kernel's source code.
Follow the following steps to patch the driver into kernel:
1. Select the patch file that matches your kernel and apply the patch:
patch -p1 -d <kernel_src_root> < bcm5700-<version>-2.4.<x>.patch
where <version> is the version of the bcm570x driver and 2.4.<x> is the version of the kernel to patch (e.g., 2.4.10).
NOTE – <kernel_src_root> is usually /usr/src/linux or /usr/src/linux-2.4.<x>
cd <kernel_src_root>
make menuconfig
make dep
make clean
....
....
For network installations through NFS, FTP, or HTTP (using a network boot disk or PXE), a driver diskette that contains the bcm570x driver may be needed. The driver diskette images for the most recent Red Hat versions are included. Boot drivers for other Linux versions can be compiled by modifying the Makefile and the make environment. Further information is available from Red Hat's website, http://www.redhat.com.
To create the driver diskette, select the appropriate image file and do the following:
dd if=dd.img of=/dev/fd0H1440.
The section describes Removing of the following Linux drivers:
To unload the driver, use ifconfig to bring down all eth# interfaces opened by the driver, then do the following:
rmmod bcm5700
If the driver was installed using rpm, do the following to remove it:
rpm -e bcm5700
If the driver was installed using make install from the tar file, the driver
bcm5700.o has to be manually deleted from the system. Refer to the section "Installing
Source RPM Package" for the location of the installed driver.
rpm -e bcm5700
Note that the backed up copy of the original bcm5700 module will be restored after you unload and reload the driver, where appropriate.
Optional parameters for the driver can be supplied as command line arguments to the insmod command. Typically, these parameters are set in the file /etc/modules.conf (see the man page for modules.conf). These parameters take the form
<parameter>=value[,value,...]
where the multiple values for the same parameter are for multiple NICs installed in the system.
NOTE – The default or other meaningful values will be used when invalid values are selected. Some combinations of parameter values may conflict and lead to failures. The driver cannot detect all such conflicting combinations.
All the module parameters are listed below.
Selects the line speed of the link. This parameter is used together with full_duplex and auto_speed to select the speed and duplex operation of the link and the setting of autonegotiation. The valid values are:
If line_speed is set to 10, 100, or 1000, the NIC will autonegotiate for the selected speed (and selected duplexity) if auto_speed is set to 1. If auto_speed is set to 0, the selected speed and duplexity will be set without autonegotiation. Note that 1000 Mbps must be negotiated for copper twisted pair links.
Enables or disables autonegotiation. The valid values are:
Note that this parameter is ignored and assumed 1 if line_speed is set to 0.
Selects the duplexity of the link. This paramter is used together with line_speed to select the speed and duplexity of the link. Note that this parameter is ignored if line_speed is 0. The valid values are:
Enables or disables receiving flow control (pause) frames. This parameter is used together with auto_flow_control. The valid values are:
Enables or disables transmitting flow control (pause) frames. This parameter is used together with auto_flow_control. The valid values are:
Enables or disables autonegotiation of flow control. This parameter is used together with rx_flow_control and tx_flow_control to determine the advertised flow control capability. The valid values are:
Enables jumbo frames up to the specified MTU size. The valid range for this parameter is 1500 to 9000. Default is 1500 which is standard ethernet (non-jumbo) MTU size. Note that the MTU size excludes the ethernet header size of 14 bytes. Actual frame size is MTU size + 14 bytes. Jumbo MTU sizes are not supported on BCM5705 chips.
The MTU size can also be changed using ifconfig after the driver is loaded.
See the ifconfig man page for details.
Enables or disables hardware transmit TCP/UDP checksum. The valid values are:
Enables or disables hardware receive TCP/UDP checksum validation. The valid values are:
Enables or disables scatter-gather and 64-bit DMA on x86. This option is only useful when running on TUX-enabled kernels or kernels with zero-copy TCP. The valid values are:
Configures the number of transmit descriptors. Default is 100. The valid
range is from 1 to 600. Depending on kernel and system architecture, the
driver may require up to 268 bytes per descriptor. Note that the driver
may not be able to allocate the required amount of memory if this parameter
is set too high. This parameter should not be set less than 80 if daptive_coalesce
(see below) is enabled.
Configures the number of receive descriptors for frames up to 1528 bytes.
Default is 200. The valid range is from 1 to 511. This parameter should
not be set less than 80 on systems with high network traffic. Setting this
parameter higher allows the NIC to buffer larger bursts of network traffic
without dropping frames, especially on slower systems. Note that the driver
may not be able to allocate the required amount of memory if this parameter
is set too high. This parameter should not be set less than 50 if adaptive_coalesce
(see below) is enabled.
Configures the number of receive descriptors for jumbo frames larger than 1528 bytes. Default is 128 and valid range is from 1 to 255. When jumbo frames larger than 1528 bytes are used, this parameter should not be set lower than 60 on systems with high network traffic. Setting this parameter higher allows the NIC to buffer larger bursts of jumbo traffic without dropping frames, especially on slower systems. Depending on kernel and system architecture, the driver may require up to 268 bytes per descriptor. Note that each descriptor will also require a buffer the size of a maximum jumbo frame. Note that each descriptor requires a buffer the size of a maximum jumbo frame.On systems with insufficient memory, it may be necessary to reduce this parameter. When the maximum frame size is less than 1528 (MTU size less than 1514), this parameter is not used and is always 0.
Enables or disables adaptive adjustments to the various interrupt coalescing
parameters. Enabling it allows the driver to dynamically adjust the interrupt
coalescing parameters to achieve high throughput during heavy traffic and
low latency during light traffic. rx_std_desc_cnt, (and rx_jumbo_desc_cnt
if using jumbo frames) should not be set less than 50, and tx_pkt_desc_cnt
should not be set less than 80 when this parameter is enabled. The valid
values are:
Configures the number of 1 usec ticks before the NIC generates receive
interrupt after receiving a frame. This parameter works in conjunction with
the rx_max_coalesce_frames parameter. Interrupt will be generated when either
of these thresholds is exceeded. 0 means this parameter is ignored and interrupt
will be generated when the rx_max_coalesce_frames threshold is reached.
The valid range is from 0 to 500, and default is 80. This parameter is not
used and will be adjusted automatically if adaptive_coalesce is set to 1.
Configures the number of received frames before the NIC generates receive interrupt. The valid range is from 0 to 100, and default is 15. This parameter and rx_coalesce_ticks cannot be both 0, otherwise no receive interrupts will be generated. It should also be set significantly lower than rx_std_desc_cnt (and rx_jumbo_desc_cnt if using jumbo frames). This parameter is not used and will be adjusted automatically if adaptive_coalesce is set to 1.
Configures the number of 1 usec ticks before the NIC generates transmit
interrupt after transmitting a frame. This parameter works in conjunction
with the tx_max_coalesce_frames parameter. Interrupt will be generated when
either of these thresholds is exceeded. 0 means this parameter is ignored
and interrupt will be generated when the tx_max_coalesce_frames threshold
is reached. The valid range is from 0 to 500, and default is 200. This parameter
is not used and will be adjusted automatically if adaptive_coalesce is set
to 1.
Configures the number of transmitted frames before the NIC generates transmit interrupt. The valid range is from 0 to 100, and default is 35. This parameter and tx_coalesce_ticks cannot be both 0, otherwise no transmit completion interrupt will be generated. This parameter should always be set lower than tx_pkt_desc_cnt. This parameter is not used and will be adjusted automatically if adaptive_coalesce is set to 1.
Configures the number of 1 usec ticks between periodic statistics block DMAs. The valid range is from 0 to 3600000000, and default is 1000000 (1 sec.). Set to 0 to disable statistics updates. This parameter is not used and will be set to default if rx_adaptive_coalesce is set to 1.
Enables or disables magic packet Wake-On-LAN when the system is shutdown. Note that not all systems support Wake-On-LAN. The valid values are:
Enables or disables TCP Segmentation Option (TSO) when using kernels that support it.
The following are the most common sample messages that may be logged in the file /var/log/messages. Use dmesg -n <level> to control the level at which messages will appear on the console. Most systems are set to level 6 by default.
Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet Driver bcm5700 with Broadcom NIC Extension (NICE) ver. 5.0.17 (01/10/03)
Driver signon
eth#: Broadcom BCM5701 1000Base-T found at mem faff0000, IRQ 16, node addr 0010180402d8
eth#: Broadcom BCM5701 Integrated Copper transceiver found
eth#: Scatter-gather ON, 64-bit DMA ON, Tx Checksum ON, Rx Checksum ONNIC detected
bcm5700: eth# NIC Link is Up, 1000 Mbps full duplex
Link up and speed indication
bcm5700: eth# NIC Link is Down
Link down indication
Detailed statistics and configuration information can be viewed in the file /proc/net/nicinfo/eth#.info.
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NOTE – Dell supports only the the Advanced Features in the Red Hat Linux Advanced Server editions. |
This section contains the following information:
Installing
the BASP Source RPM Package
Installing
the BASP Binary RPM Package (Red Hat 8.0 and 2.1 AS only)
BASP
Configuration for Red Hat Distribution
BASP
Configuration and Startup for Other Linux Distributions
BASP
Configuration Scripts for Red Hat Distributions
Uninstalling
the BASP RPM Package (Both Source and Binary)
Removal
of Physical Interface in Generic Trunking and 802.3ad Mode
BASP is a kernel module designed for 2.4.x kernels that provides load-balancing, fault-tolerance, and VLAN features. These features are provided by creating teams that consist of multiple NIC interfaces. A team can consist of 1 to 8 NIC interfaces and each interface can be designated primary, or hot-standby (SLB team only). All primary NIC interfaces in a team will participate in Load-balancing operations by sending and receiving a portion of the total traffic. Hot-standby interfaces will take over in the event that all primary interfaces have lost their links. VLANs can be added to a team to allow multiple VLANs with different VLAN IDs. A virtual device is created for each VLAN added.
SLB mode works with all Ethernet switches without configuring the switch ports to any special trunking mode. BASP supports Smart Load Balance (SLB™), Generic Trunking and IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation. In SLB and 802.3ad modes, all NICE drivers must support Broadcom NIC Extension (NICE). In this release, several NIC drivers patched with NICE are included.
Generic trunking mode does not require NICE and can work with any NIC, however, it requires the Ethernet switch to support the technology and be properly configured. This mode is protocol-independent and all traffic should be load-balanced and fault-tolerant.
802.3ad mode requires NICE drivers and Ethernet switches supporting IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation. This mode is protocol-independent and all traffic will be load-balanced and fault-tolerant. All the physical interfaces in the 802.3ad teams are defaulted to be LACP active. A 802.3ad team requires all the member NICs support NICE. All the member NICs, once in the 802.3ad team, will be set with the same MAC address.
BASP also provides remote management through the SNMP protocol, and this package is installed separately (see "BASP SNMP Agent for Linux").
BASP is released in three packaging formats: source RPM, binary RPM (Red Hat distributions only) and compressed tar formats. The file names for the three packages are basplnx-<version>.src.<arch>.rpm, basplnx-<version>.i386.rpm and basplnx-<version>.<arch>.tgz, respectively. Identical source files to build the driver are included in both RPM and TAR source packages. The Binary RPM contains only the pre-compiled IA32 object file for Red Hat 8.0 and 2.1 AS only.
BASP for Linux is shipped in mixed forms, where the platform and kernel specific files are in source code, and the core file is in object form. Three packages are shipped in this release: two tar archives and two RPM packages.
basplnx-{version}.i386.tgz is the tar archive for i386 platform.
For users of Red Hat distributions, follow instructions in "Installing the BASP Source RPM Package" or "Installing the BASP Binary RPM Package" sections.
For users of other Linux i386 distribution, follow instructions in "Installing BASP TAR Archive" section.
% rpm -i basplnx-{version}.src.{arch}.rpm
% cd /usr/src/redhat
% rpm -bb SPECS/basplnx.spec or rpmbuild -bb SPECS/basplnx.spec
Note that the RPM path is different for different Linux distributions.
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NOTE – While attempting to install a source RPM you may receive the message: error: cannot create %sourcedir /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES The most likely cause is that the rpm-build package has not been installed. To rectify the situation, locate the rpm-build package on the Red Hat installation media and install it using the command: rpm -ivh rpm-build-<version>.i386.rpm Complete the installation of the source RPM as previously described.. |
% rpm -i RPMS/i386/basplnx-{version}.{arch}.rpm
The driver and other required files will be automatically installed.
To load the driver
% insmod basp
The driver and other required files will be automatically installed
Refer to "BASP Configuration for Red Hat Distribution" to set up the teams.
To uncompress and expand the tar archive, run
% tar xvfz basplnx-{version}.{arch}.tgz
The installation process involves the following steps:
After extraction, change the directory to where the BASP source files
are located.
% cd basplnx-{version}
% make
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NOTE – The Make process will automatically build the correct module for different kernel options, e.g. symbol versioning and SMP support. There is NO need to define -DMODVERSIONS in the Makefile. |
% make install
% depmod -a
% insmod basp
Makefile makefile baspcfg precompiled configuration utility bcmtype.h commonly used type header file blf.c BASP module entry points blf.h ioctl interface blfcore.h core interface blfcore.o precompiled core object blfopt.h automatically generated header file from Make blfver.h version header file nicext.h NICE header file pal.c platform abstraction implementation pal.h header for platform abstraction release.txt this file nice-2.2.16 NICE enabled driver for 2.2 kernel nice-2.4.16 NICE enabled driver for 2.4 kernel scripts contains sample scripts scripts/basp init script, goes to /etc/rc.d/init.d scripts/baspteam start/stop script, goes to /etc/basp scripts/baspif start/stop network, i/f, goes to /etc/basp scripts/team-sample sample script of SLB team with three NICs scripts/team-gec sample script of GEC team with three NICs scripts/team-vlan sample script of SLB team with 2 VLANs basp.4
man page baspcfg.8 man page for baspcfg utility
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NOTE – To avoid failover problems when using BASP, make sure that the spanning tree is disabled on the switch to which the network adapter is connected. |
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NOTE – When adding 64 VLANs, the
64th VLAN must have a VLAN ID of 0 (63 VLANs are tagged and 1 VLAN is
untagged).
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NOTE – VLANs are not supported on non-Broadcom adapters. It is supported on the Alteon® adapters if the ALT.LAN provided by Broadcom is used. If a non-Broadcom adapter is a member of a failover team, VLANs will not be supported for that team. |
The BASP distribution includes a utility program and several scripts for team configuration. Following steps for Red Hat Linux distributions only. Most of the steps are only required to be performed after the first time installation. Step 2 "Modify the configuration script" should be performed whenever there is any change to the team configuration.
Since Red Hat distributions do not automatically load drivers for network devices unless the device is configured with an IP address, users must manually configure a network-script file for all physical adapters that will be team members. Network script files are located under /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts. The file name must be prefixed with "ifcfg-" then the physical adapter alias. For interface eth0, you would create a file with the name ifcfg-eth0, then add the below content.
Example:
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
ONBOOT=yes
For users of other Linux distributions, follow instructions in the "baspcfg" section.
The configuration process involves the following steps:
Copy a configuration script from the "/etc/basp/samples" directory
to the "/etc/basp" directory. Note that the configuration script
name must be prefixed with "team-".
The syntax of the configuration script can be found in the “BASP Configuration Scripts for Red Hat Distributions” section or in the /etc/basp/sample/team-sample script file itself. Note that when configuring Teaming, at least one Primary Adapter is required.