4. Pre-Installation Guidelines
NetXen, Inc.
Intelligent NIC Installation and Tuning Guide
9
4.2
Linux Guidelines
The following material should be read before starting a Linux installation.
The following is a brief summary of Linux installation guidelines.
Kernel source and header packages must be installed to build the kernel driver.
Determining GPL inbox Kernel drivers.
Requirements for Linux LSA driver installation.
MSI-X initialization and support.
Location of auto-load firmware file.
Host memory support.
Each of these guidelines is described in more detail below.
4.2.1
Building the Linux Driver Source Code
Linux kernel source/headers are required to compile the drivers provided in source code
format. Some Linux OS distributions may not install the kernel source/headers by default.
But the headers can be added from the Linux OS Distribution disk using the package
manager.
4.2.2
Linux NIC - GPL Inbox Kernel and Commercial Drivers
The NetXen Linux NIC driver is available in GPL version and it is included in the Linux
kernels available from kernel.org (netxen_nic).
Note that the commercial version of the NIC driver (nx_nic) contains the most recent
release updates.
1
Starting with Linux distribution SLES 10SP1 & RHEL5U1 and linux kernel version
2.6.20 and later, include the Linux GPL version of the driver module -- netxen_nic.ko
NetXen Linux GPL inbox driver
Driver name: netxen_nic.ko
Version: 3.3.25 or 3.4.2 and later
2
The netxen_nic.ko driver can be identified using lsmod | grep netxen_nic
3
The Linux GPL driver, netxen_nic.ko can be disabled by:
i.
rmmod netxen_nic
ii. Removing or renaming the netxen_nic.ko file from /lib/modules/<uname -r>/
kernel/drivers/net/netxen directory
4
The NetXen commercial driver nx_nic.ko, which is included in this release can be
enabled after the Linux GPL driver is disabled.
5
The utilities provided in this release are supported ONLY for the commercial version
of the driver.
