Drivers for recent homelab NICs in XCP-ng 8.2

stormi

Context: various recent devices on the consumer market require network drivers which are not present in XCP-ng 8.2.

Based on the work made with @Andrew for XCP-ng 8.3, I've finally found some time to backport the drivers to XCP-ng 8.2.

The following optional driver packages will soon be updated on the default repositories:

igc-module (backported from kernel 5.10.150): adds support for Intel I225/I226.
intel-e1000e-alt (updated to 3.8.7): adds support for Intel I219-V.
r8125-module (updated to 9.010.01) for RealTek r8125. Quoting @Andrew:

Note: This 8125 driver has SG/TSO, PTP, RSS enabled by default.
Note: This 8125 driver has (optional) firmware loading enabled. Please manually download the rtl8125 firmware and install in XCP in /usr/lib/firmware/rtl_nic .
Note: The 8125 Chipset/PCI-E card/driver has been known to cause system problems and crashes (not an XCP problem).

These are Additional packages, which means only best effort support is provided for them.

Update (2023-05-03): packages now moved to the xcp-ng-updates repository, which means they can be installed with a simple yum install name_of_package, without the need for extra parameters.

stormi

Right now, the updated RPMs are in the xcp-ng-testing repository. Which means you need to add the --enablerepo=xcp-ng-testing parameter to yum if you want to install or update them.

I will now need feedback before I move them to the xcp-ng-updates repository to make them more easily available.

Andrew

@stormi Thanks for supporting 8.2 LTS with some new drivers!

planedrop

Just wanna say thanks for the awesome work here, I'm not in a position to test these at the moment but wanted to say thanks nonetheless!

loopway

Thank you @stormi, really appreciate it! Updated today from the testing repo and have had no issues so far on my nuc11 (NUC11PAHi5) with I225-V NIC.

Andrew

@stormi Will the drivers be added to the alt kernel too?

stormi

@Andrew It's not planned. See https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/61142.

stormi

So, can anyone test the intel-e1000e-alt and r8125-module drivers on real hardware?

ajpri1998

@stormi
I can test the r8125 driver, but I already use the @Andrew drivers from his pre-renamed ISO. What do I need to do to “uninstall” his and switch to the testing?

stormi

@ajpri1998 Yes, you need to make sure the kernel package is up to date (for the display fixes, if you need them), boot the main kernel, remove Andrew's drivers, and install our package instead.

This may help: https://xcp-ng.org/forum/post/61095

ajpri1998

@stormi
Thank you! I think I got it working. Previously had version 9.009. Now:

stormi

@ajpri1998 Is this after a reboot, to make sure the new driver is loaded?

ajpri1998

@stormi yes, this is after a reboot.

ajpri1998

So far my R8125 is still working.

Also my Dell Optiplex 5040 does have a I219-V. It did work out of the box without issues with a iso downloaded last week. Does the alt driver add any additional features/functionality?

stormi

@ajpri1998 I don't know. I assumed @Andrew built version 3.8.7 for a reason since we already had version 3.8.4 by default in 8.2.

He wrote it adds many device IDs, so I believe that if your NIC was already working, the updated driver is not necessary for you.

However, your feedback would remain useful: if the NIC works with the updated driver, it helps validating the build. Then you can remove it and go back to the main driver to avoid unnecessary customizations.

stormi

I moved the drivers RPMs mentioned above to the xcp-ng-updates repository, so it's not necessary anymore to add --enablerepo=xcp-ng-testing to install them.

Being in xcp-ng-updates doesn't mean they will get installed automatically next time you update. No dependency will pull them on your 8.2 hosts unless you explicitly ask to install them, with yum install.

Strebor

@stormi
Do you mean that if I install i225 driver, next time I do “yum update” within 8.2, I loose the driver (leaving host without network connection), or do you mean the driver will not be added when I in the future do an upgrade to 8.3 (or for instance 8.2.x)? As these drives are in 8.3, that should not cause a problem, correct?

stormi

I only mean that, if you are on XCP-ng 8.2 and haven't installed the drivers, updating the hosts will not force-install the drivers to your hosts. In other words, it's not because a package is made available in the updates repository that it is necessarily selected by RPM dependencies to update all XCP-ng 8.2 hosts that install official updates.

But if you choose to install such packages, then they will remain (at least until a full upgrade using the installation ISO).

Strebor

@stormi
Thanks!

nhurion

Hi,

I'm new to xcp-ng and coming back to linux after about a 20 years break (so my knowledge is either very recent, or very old).

I have a new fanless computer with intel i226 chips, I'm trying to install xcp-ng on it but I can't find out how.

I have the 8.2.1 iso on a bootable usb, already used it to install on 2 older hosts.
I have downloaded the rpm and added it to the Packages directory but the installer refuses to go because I have no ethernet cards.
So I guess I need to somehow add the driver with the F9 menu on the first screen, but I have no clue how. When I try it say that no drivers were detected.

I've also tried extracting the ko file from the rpm and put it on the usb, but it is not automatically loaded and not detected by the F9 menu, so I guess it's in wrong location

Is there a guide somewhere on how to do that ?