Driver: Add support for intel i225 nic (igc)

[hoerup]

Has been asked for at least twice

https://xcp-ng.org/forum/topic/5454/anybody-using-11th-gen-intel-nuc-with-intel-i225-nics https://xcp-ng.org/forum/topic/4998/i225-nic-driver-for-8-2?_=1642613018175

[stormi]

So the driver would be Intel's igc, it seems.

Where do you find this kind of devices usually?

[dziurr]

So the driver would be Intel's igc, it seems.

Where do you find this kind of devices usually?

Higher end consumer/workstation motherboards and intel nucs

[smiggiddy]

I could use this driver as well. My device has this nic

[StreborStrebor]

I would love integration of this driver. It looks like all future Intel NUCs are going to use NICs that need it. (and I can imagine quite a few home labs are going to start to want to use these energy efficient little beasts with the current rising energy costs)

[stormi]

We're building a driver and I'm considering including it in the upcoming new installation ISOs for XCP-ng 8.2 (8.2.1 ISOs), but I'll need extremely fast test feedback for that, or I'll just revert before the release due next week.

Any volunteers?

[smiggiddy]

I can test

[stormi]

Here's a RPM you can install on an already installed XCP-ng: https://koji.xcp-ng.org/kojifiles/packages/igc-module/4.20.17/1.xcpng8.2/x86_64/igc-module-4.20.17-1.xcpng8.2.x86_64.rpm

If you couldn't install XCP-ng at all due to the missing driver, then I'll have to build a new installation ISO with it.

[smiggiddy]

unfortunately, I couldn't install cause of the missing driver.

I can unpack that RPM though? Load up the kernel module, and then install the rpm?

[stormi]

Yes, this should work.

[stormi]

You can access a shell with ALT+RIGHT during installation.

Then insmod igc.ko. This hopefully should be enough to allow you to proceed further.

After the installation, at first reboot, install the RPM.

[dziurr]

1. just compiled it from source and it seams to work, needs ifconfig eth0 down and ifconfig eth0 up on every start

[stormi]

Here's a test installation ISO image. Please test ASAP and tell me if it your network card is operational: https://updates.xcp-ng.org/tmp/xcp-ng-8.2.1-test5.iso

[dziurr]

i've installed your iso and its kind of working but i need to do ifconfig eth0 down and ifconfig eth0 up every start to make it working.

[stormi]

i've installed your iso and its kind of working but i need to do ifconfig eth0 down and ifconfig eth0 up every start to make it working.

And not with the one you built from sources? Where did you get the sources from?

[dziurr]

i've installed your iso and its kind of working but i need to do ifconfig eth0 down and ifconfig eth0 up every start to make it working.

And not with the one you built from sources? Where did you get the sources from?

Same thing happens with driver build from source. Btw dmesg shows igc: loading out of tree driver taints kernel in both versions. Got source's from xcp-ng rpms repo

[stormi]

The message in dmesg is expected when you load a driver that was not a builtin driver.

[stormi]

Can you try to identify why the down+up is necessary?

Could others test the installation ISO, too?

[dziurr]

it seams like it starts while splash screen is loading(leds turn on) and it goes down after splash screen closes(leds turn of). after down+up it starts working. doing only up won't fix it. tried adding ifcfg-eth0 file to network scripts with ONBOOT=yes and DEVICE=eth0 and it won't load automatically, need to restart network service and it will work.

[dziurr]

Can you try to identify why the down+up is necessary?

Could others test the installation ISO, too?

@stormi I probably found the problem. ethtool does not work with igc.

[stormi]

Here are the sources we build ethtool from: https://github.com/xcp-ng-rpms/ethtool/tree/8.2

If we can find a patch that fixes this issue, I could be able to integrate it in the 8.2.1 release. I've got a lot of other tasks to do so any help in this direction from you or the rest of the community would be wonderful.

[stormi]

Can you try to identify why the down+up is necessary? Could others test the installation ISO, too?

@stormi I probably found the problem. ethtool does not work with igc.

By the way can you detail what leads you to this conclusion?

[dziurr]

ethtool with every command expect -i shows operation not supported for eth0(i225-v). Just for test booted xcp-ng installer on another pc with realtek r8125 and ethtool works just fine. I am trying to add igc support to ethtool from your repo, but without any luck so far. i added igc code from newer ethtool and updated makefiles etc... it compiled just fine but it still wont work with igc. also tried installing ethtool 5.8 from centos rpms and the same story. For test purpose booted centos 7.2009 installer and ethtool works with igc.

[stormi]

Thanks. Now I have also feedback for r8125 thanks to you. Is your Realtek card an USB one or PCI-E?

[stormi]

For test purpose booted centos 7.2009 installer and ethtool works with igc.

Did CentOS 7.9 recognise the device directly, or did you need to build the driver?

[dziurr]

By the way can you detail what leads you to this conclusion?

r8125 in PCIe integrated in aorus x570 master motherboard.

[dziurr]

For test purpose booted centos 7.2009 installer and ethtool works with igc.

Did CentOS 7.9 recognise the device directly, or did you need to build the driver?

Surprisingly installer recognized it right away and it has very old kernel 3.10. ethtool also worked

[stormi]

They probably backported the driver to their kernel.

[stormi]

Looking at how they did might reveal something we missed.

[dziurr]

Looking at how they did might reveal something we missed.

So in conclusion: installed ethtool 4.8 from centos 7.9 and it doesn't work with with igc installed ethtool 5.8 from new centos and the same story I installed centos 8(4.18 kernel igc included ethtool 5.13) and everything works. then i installed ethtool 4.19 from xcp-ng on it which does not have igc support, and surprisingly works, so the problem must be somewhere else maybe igc module. I found that igc sources from centos 4.18 kernel contains more files. I am trying to build igc from centos source.

edit:Comparing source codes of both igc versions reviles the problem. igc module backported to 4.20 does not have anything about ethtool while centos version has a lot of code dedicated to ethtool

[dziurr]

After long investigation i found why it did not work. The problem lied in igc. I have been able to patch the driver and it seams to work. i also noticed that the driver backported to kernel 4.20 does not support ethtool. I found latest version of igc in linux tree with ethtool support i patched it and compiled and it seams to work. i've also added added igc code to ethtool.