Solved Intel 10Gb NIC card not recognized by FreeBSD 10.3

Hi,

I installed a 10GB Intel NIC card (Intel® Ethernet Converged Network Adapter XL710 10/40 GbE) on FreeBSD 10.3 on Dell T630 machine.

FreeBSD 10.3 is not recognizing the NIC card. pciconf shows that the NIC card is not recognized. I find the following message on dmesg


I tried to unload the if_ixl.ko module and reload it back. But it did not resolve the problem. Appreciate any input.

Code:
1 Copyright (c) 1992-2016 The FreeBSD Project.
  2 Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
  3         The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
  4 FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
  5 FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE #0 r297264: Fri Mar 25 02:10:02 UTC 2016
  6     root@releng1.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64
  7 FreeBSD clang version 3.4.1 (tags/RELEASE_34/dot1-final 208032) 20140512
  8 module_register: cannot register pci/ixl from kernel; already loaded from if_ixl.ko
  9 Module pci/ixl failed to register: 17

Code:
root@netflix:/usr/local/www/nginx-dist/images # kldstat
Id Refs Address            Size     Name
1    8 0xffffffff80200000 17bc680  kernel
3    1 0xffffffff81c11000 358d     ums.ko
4    1 0xffffffff81c15000 18788    if_ixl.ko


Thanks,
Lakshmi
 
The dmesg output shows that it's trying to load the driver compiled into the kernel and failing because you loaded the driver from a kernel module.

What happens if you comment out the line in /boot/loader.conf and reboot?
 
I run into the same message again. I am attaching the full dmesg.out and pciconf output. Let me know if you have any input. I have installed Intel X710 card. The arch/notes say FreeBSD supports this NIC card.

5 FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE #0 r297264: Fri Mar 25 02:10:02 UTC 2016
6 root@releng1.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64
7 FreeBSD clang version 3.4.1 (tags/RELEASE_34/dot1-final 208032) 20140512
8 module_register: cannot register pci/ixl from kernel; already loaded from if_ixl.ko
9 Module pci/ixl failed to register: 17
 

Attachments

  • pciconf.txt
    25.7 KB · Views: 496
  • dmesg.txt
    41.5 KB · Views: 448
If you look at your dmesg.txt it shows two separate boots: the first one includes the error about loading a driver that's already in the kernel; the second one doesn't show anything about the NIC at all. And there's nothing in the pciconf.txt that looks like a NIC to me.

I'd try plugging the NIC into a different PCIe port on the motherboard and see if it's detected then, or at least shows in the pciconf output. And, I'd try booting off a FreeBSD 11 LiveCD/USB stick to see if it's detected there. From the looks of things, you may have hardware too new for the driver included with FreeBSD.
 
If you look at your dmesg.txt it shows two separate boots: the first one includes the error about loading a driver that's already in the kernel; the second one doesn't show anything about the NIC at all. And there's nothing in the pciconf.txt that looks like a NIC to me.

I'd try plugging the NIC into a different PCIe port on the motherboard and see if it's detected then, or at least shows in the pciconf output. And, I'd try booting off a FreeBSD 11 LiveCD/USB stick to see if it's detected there. From the looks of things, you may have hardware too new for the driver included with FreeBSD.


Thanks for taking the time to debug my issue. I did try plugging the NIC card into different PCIe slots on the Dell T630 machine. But no success. I tried to see if it is a recognized by 32 bit FreeBSD 10.3 OS. No luck with that either. I see the following message in dmesg.out. Does this ring a bell ?

121 pci0: <unknown> at device 17.0 (no driver attached)

..
129 pci0: <simple comms> at device 22.0 (no driver attached)
130 pci0: <simple comms> at device 22.1 (no driver attached)
 
intel-ixl-mod directory is not a port of /usr/ports/net in FreeBSD 10.3. I did
svn checkout [URL]https://svn.FreeBSD.org/ports/head[/URL] /usr/ports
But it still did not pick up intel-ixl-mod.

I went ahead and downloaded the latest driver from
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...40-Gigabit-Network-Connections-under-FreeBSD-

I build and loaded the driver.
Code:
root@netflix:/usr/ports # kldstat
Id Refs Address            Size     Name
1   12 0xffffffff80200000 17bc680  kernel
2    1 0xffffffff819bd000 faf8     if_ixgb.ko
4    1 0xffffffff81c11000 358d     ums.ko
5    1 0xffffffff81c15000 1d1c0    if_ixl.ko

However it is still not picking up the Intel 710 NIC card. dmesg shows the following line when I manually load the driver
Code:
sysctl_unregister_oid: failed to unregister sysctl

Appreciate your input.
 
intel-ixl-mod directory is not a port of /usr/ports/net in FreeBSD 10.3. I did
svn checkout [URL]https://svn.FreeBSD.org/ports/head[/URL] /usr/ports
But it still did not pick up intel-ixl-mod.

Note that the name is intel-ixl-kmod.

Furthermore, add this line to your /boot/loader.conf
Code:
# load the updated version of the ixl driver
if_ixl_updated_load="YES"

Read the pkg-message.in for more details.
Code:
THIS PACKAGE INSTALLS THE NEWER VERSION OF THE SOFTWARE WHICH CAN CAUSE SYSTEM
INSTABILITY WHILE USED. USE THE UPDATED VERSION ONLY IF YOU EXPERIENCE
PROBLEMS WITH THE DRIVER PRESENT IN THE KERNEL DISTRIBUTION

Usage:
To load the updated version of the driver add this:

if_%%PORTNAME%%_updated_load="YES"

to your /boot/loader.conf and reboot the machine.
There's no need to recompile the GENERIC kernel without if_%%PORTNAME%% driver

After the reboot you may see this kind of messaged in the dmesg:

module_register: module pci/%%PORTNAME%% already exists!
Module pci/%%PORTNAME%% failed to register: 17

This is the side effect of the newer version of the driver overriding the
older one and can be safely disregarded
 
My /usr/ports is syncing from the following branch:


root@netflix:/usr/ports # svn info
Path: .

Working Copy Root Path: /usr/ports
URL: https://svn.freebsd.org/ports/head
Relative URL: ^/head
Repository Root: https://svn.freebsd.org/ports
Repository UUID: 35697150-7ecd-e111-bb59-0022644237b5
Revision: 414824
Node Kind: directory
Schedule: normal
Last Changed Author: vanilla
Last Changed Rev: 414824
Last Changed Date: 2016-05-08 19:21:10 -0800 (Sun, 08 May 2016)

It is however not picking up net/intel-ixl-kmod. I tried forcefully updating etc but no point.
root@netflix:/usr/ports/net # pwd
/usr/ports/net
root@netflix:/usr/ports/net # ls in*
ls: No match.

It looks like it is using driver version 1.4.27. I downloaded the source code for version 1.4.27 from the intel website and built it. The driver does get loaded but it does not pick up the NIC card. Any suggestion.
 
Note that the name is intel-ixl-kmod.

Furthermore, add this line to your /boot/loader.conf
Code:
# load the updated version of the ixl driver
if_ixl_updated_load="YES"

Read the pkg-message.in for more details.
Code:
THIS PACKAGE INSTALLS THE NEWER VERSION OF THE SOFTWARE WHICH CAN CAUSE SYSTEM
INSTABILITY WHILE USED. USE THE UPDATED VERSION ONLY IF YOU EXPERIENCE
PROBLEMS WITH THE DRIVER PRESENT IN THE KERNEL DISTRIBUTION

Usage:
To load the updated version of the driver add this:

if_%%PORTNAME%%_updated_load="YES"

to your /boot/loader.conf and reboot the machine.
There's no need to recompile the GENERIC kernel without if_%%PORTNAME%% driver

After the reboot you may see this kind of messaged in the dmesg:

module_register: module pci/%%PORTNAME%% already exists!
Module pci/%%PORTNAME%% failed to register: 17

This is the side effect of the newer version of the driver overriding the
older one and can be safely disregarded


I do see the side effect in my dmesg
64 module_register: cannot register pci/ixl from kernel; already loaded from if_ixl.ko
1365 Module pci/ixl failed to register: 17
 
Folks thank you all for your help. There was actually no issue on FreeBSD side. It was a problem with the Dell T630 tower I was using. It was bad hardware issue
 
Folks thank you all for your help. There was actually no issue on FreeBSD side. It was a problem with the Dell T630 tower I was using. It was bad hardware issue

I suspected that it was the problem. Never mind, you have found it :)

Thanks for reporting!
 
Hello laksh2511,

Can you please share what was the problem with the T630? I am asking because I want to buy the same machine for my office.

Thanks
 
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