Bug 263378
| Summary: | Consider updating in-tree em(4) driver to Intel's 7.7.8 source (final release) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | Base System | Reporter: | Joshua Kinard <freebsd> |
| Component: | kern | Assignee: | Kevin Bowling <kbowling> |
| Status: | Closed Not A Bug | ||
| Severity: | Affects Only Me | CC: | kbowling |
| Priority: | --- | ||
| Version: | CURRENT | ||
| Hardware: | Any | ||
| OS: | Any | ||
Could this be assigned to net@ so that it eventually gets looked at and considered? Thanks! Over to appropriate list as requested. The in tree driver is already superior to the out of tree driver dev.em.0.iflib.driver_version: 7.7.8-fbsd |
In Intel(R) Ethernet Adapter Complete Driver Pack release 26.4/readme.txt, Intel announced the discontinuation of updates for their out-of-tree em(4) driver, making 7.7.8 the final release: > Discontinued Support > ==================== > Release 26.3 is the last release that supports the following: > - Microsoft Windows 10, Version 1803 > - Microsoft Windows 10, Version 1903 > - Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* (RHEL) 6.x > - The FreeBSD em driver. Maintenance for this driver will be continued by the > community. The in-tree kernel driver is based off of the 7.6.1 source. Since Intel will no longer update their out-of-tree driver, it seems prudent to integrate the final 7.7.8 source changes into the in-tree source code for FreeBSD 14 so that it has time to be tested by the community and then continue to evolve as needed. I am unsure how this might affect the igb(4) driver, which seems integrated into the existing in-tree em(4) code. Intel appears to still be supporting this driver independently, the latest being igb-2.5.21. If I had to take a guess, the igb(4) source may need to be split out from em(4) and put into its own subdir under /usr/src/sys/dev so that it will be easier to track the upstream copy as-needed, while the em(4) driver evolves based on community changes.