Install FreeBSD Drivers

Intel® Ethernet Adapters and Devices User Guide

ID	Date	Version	Classification
705831	11/12/2024		Public

Note:

The FreeBSD driver package is to be used only as a standalone archive and the user should not attempt to incorporate it into the kernel source tree.

The instructions below apply to the following device series and drivers:

Device Series	Driver Name
Intel Adapter Virtual Functions	iavf
Intel Ethernet 800 Series	ice
Intel Ethernet 700 Series	ixl
Intel Ethernet 500 Series	ix
Intel Ethernet 300 Series	igb

In the instructions below:

<driver> is the driver name, such as ice or iavf
x.x.x is the driver version as indicated in the name of the driver tar file

Move the base driver tar file to the directory of your choice. For example, use /home/username/<driver> or /usr/local/src/<driver>.
Untar/unzip the archive:
```
tar xzf <driver>-x.x.x.tar.gz
```
This will create the <driver>-x.x.x directory.

To install the man page:

cd <driver>-x.x.x
gzip -c <driver>.4 > /usr/share/man/man4/<driver>.4.gz

To load the driver onto a running system:
```
cd <driver>-x.x.x
make
kldload ./if_<driver>.ko
```
For the iavf driver, to install the driver without using iflib:
```
cd iavf-x.x.x/src
make legacy
kldload ./if_iavf.ko
```
Note:
Ensure the driver isn’t compiled into the currently running kernel. You can do that by adding nodevice <driver> to your kernel configuration file and rebuilding your kernel. See sections 10.4 and 10.5 in Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel in the FreeBSD kernel documentation for more information.
Note:
For ice devices, running the make command will not install the Dynamic Device Personalization (DDP) package and could cause the driver to fail to load. See step #7 below for more information.
To assign an IP address to the interface, enter the following, where X is the interface number for the device:
```
ifconfig <driver>X <IP_address>
```
For example:
```
ifconfig ice0 <IP_address>
```
Verify that the interface works. Enter the following, where <IP_address> is the IP address for another machine on the same subnet as the interface that is being tested:
```
ping <IP_address>
```
If you want the driver to load automatically when the system is booted, do the following.
1. For all devices except ice:
```
cd <driver>-x.x.x/src
make
make install
```
  For ice devices:
```
cd <driver>-x.x.x
make
make install
```
Note:
For ice devices, it’s important to do make install so that the driver loads the DDP package automatically.
1. Edit /boot/loader.conf and add the following line:
```
if_<driver>_load="YES"
```
If you want the device to connect to a network without manual intervention after a boot, edit /etc/rc.conf and create the appropriate ifconfig_<driver>X entry:
```
ifconfig_<driver>X="<ifconfig_settings>"
```

For example:

ifconfig_ice0="inet 192.168.10.1 netmask 255.255.255.0"

Note:

For assistance, see the ifconfig man page.