Linux Drivers

Linux drivers handle PCI enumeration and link status interrupts in user mode, instead of being handled by kernel.

To work properly, different PMDs might require different kernel drivers. Depending on the PMD being used, a corresponding kernel driver should be loaded, and network ports should be bound to that driver.

• VFIO driver is a robust and secure driver that relies on IOMMU protection.
• UIO is a small kernel module to set up the device, map device memory to user space, and register interrupts.

Since DPDK release 1.7 onward provides VFIO support, it is recommended that vfio-pci be used as the kernel module for DPDK-bound ports in all cases. This is a more robust and secure driver compared to UIO, relying on IOMMU protection. To make use of VFIO, the vfio-pci module must be loaded.

If an IOMMU is unavailable, the vfio-pci can be used in no-iommu mode. If, for some reason, vfio is unavailable, the UIO-based modules, igb_​uio and uio_​pci_​generic may be used.