Intel In-Tree Linux Network Drivers Being Adapted To Support Firmware Updates
Intel IGB is the company's network driver for 82575, 82576, 82580, I350, I354, and I210/I211 series hardware. The Intel IXGBE is their driver for their 10 Gigabit network adapters such as the 82598 and 82599 series. While there's long been the upstream IGB and IXGBE network drivers in the mainline Linux kernel, Intel does continue to maintain out-of-tree versions of these drivers for those wanting to run the newest releases on older enterprise kernels and for other adaptations.
One of the differences though between the in-tree and out-of-tree Intel network drivers is that firmware updating has been supported in the out-of-tree code but not what is shipped by the upstream kernel. Richard Chien of HPE has now posted patches for bringing firmware updating to the mainline IGB and IXGBE Linux kernel drivers.
Chien explained in the patches for adding the firmware updating to the drivers:
"This patch adds support for firmware update to the in-tree igb driver and it is actually a port from the out-of-tree igb driver. In-band firmware update is one of the essential system maintenance tasks. To simplify this task, the Intel online firmware update utility provides a common interface that works across different Intel NICs running the igb/ixgbe/i40e drivers. Unfortunately, the in-tree igb and ixgbe drivers are unable to support this firmware update utility, causing problems for enterprise users who do not or cannot use out-of-distro drivers due to security and various other reasons (e.g. commercial Linux distros do not provide technical support for out-of-distro drivers). As a result, getting this feature into the in-tree igb driver is highly desirable."
The patches are pending for IXGBE and IGB to support the firmware updates.
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