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Enabling the driver and kconfig options

Documentation/networking/device_drivers/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/kconfig.rst

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.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR Linux-OpenIB .. include:: <isonum.txt>

======================================= Enabling the driver and kconfig options

:Copyright: |copy| 2023, NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.

| mlx5 core is modular and most of the major mlx5 core driver features can be selected (compiled in/out) | at build time via kernel Kconfig flags. | Basic features, ethernet net device rx/tx offloads and XDP, are available with the most basic flags | CONFIG_MLX5_CORE=y/m and CONFIG_MLX5_CORE_EN=y. | For the list of advanced features, please see below.

CONFIG_MLX5_BRIDGE=(y/n)

| Enable :ref:Ethernet Bridging (BRIDGE) offloading support <mlx5_bridge_offload>. | This will provide the ability to add representors of mlx5 uplink and VF | ports to Bridge and offloading rules for traffic between such ports. | Supports VLANs (trunk and access modes).

CONFIG_MLX5_CORE=(y/m/n) (module mlx5_core.ko)

| The driver can be enabled by choosing CONFIG_MLX5_CORE=y/m in kernel config. | This will provide mlx5 core driver for mlx5 ulps to interface with (mlx5e, mlx5_ib).

CONFIG_MLX5_CORE_EN=(y/n)

| Choosing this option will allow basic ethernet netdevice support with all of the standard rx/tx offloads. | mlx5e is the mlx5 ulp driver which provides netdevice kernel interface, when chosen, mlx5e will be | built-in into mlx5_core.ko.

CONFIG_MLX5_CORE_EN_DCB=(y/n):

| Enables Data Center Bridging (DCB) Support <https://enterprise-support.nvidia.com/s/article/howto-auto-config-pfc-and-ets-on-connectx-4-via-lldp-dcbx>_.

CONFIG_MLX5_CORE_IPOIB=(y/n)

| IPoIB offloads & acceleration support. | Requires CONFIG_MLX5_CORE_EN to provide an accelerated interface for the rdma | IPoIB ulp netdevice.

CONFIG_MLX5_CLS_ACT=(y/n)

| Enables offload support for TC classifier action (NET_CLS_ACT). | Works in both native NIC mode and Switchdev SRIOV mode. | Flow-based classifiers, such as those registered through | tc-flower(8), are processed by the device, rather than the | host. Actions that would then overwrite matching classification | results would then be instant due to the offload.

CONFIG_MLX5_EN_ARFS=(y/n)

| Enables Hardware-accelerated receive flow steering (arfs) support, and ntuple filtering. | https://enterprise-support.nvidia.com/s/article/howto-configure-arfs-on-connectx-4

CONFIG_MLX5_EN_IPSEC=(y/n)

| Enables :ref:IPSec XFRM cryptography-offload acceleration <xfrm_device>.

CONFIG_MLX5_MACSEC=(y/n)

| Build support for MACsec cryptography-offload acceleration in the NIC.

CONFIG_MLX5_EN_RXNFC=(y/n)

| Enables ethtool receive network flow classification, which allows user defined | flow rules to direct traffic into arbitrary rx queue via ethtool set/get_rxnfc API.

CONFIG_MLX5_EN_TLS=(y/n)

| TLS cryptography-offload acceleration.

CONFIG_MLX5_ESWITCH=(y/n)

| Ethernet SRIOV E-Switch support in ConnectX NIC. E-Switch provides internal SRIOV packet steering | and switching for the enabled VFs and PF in two available modes: | 1) Legacy SRIOV mode (L2 mac vlan steering based) <https://enterprise-support.nvidia.com/s/article/HowTo-Configure-SR-IOV-for-ConnectX-4-ConnectX-5-ConnectX-6-with-KVM-Ethernet>_. | 2) :ref:Switchdev mode (eswitch offloads) <switchdev>.

CONFIG_MLX5_FPGA=(y/n)

| Build support for the Innova family of network cards by Mellanox Technologies. | Innova network cards are comprised of a ConnectX chip and an FPGA chip on one board. | If you select this option, the mlx5_core driver will include the Innova FPGA core and allow | building sandbox-specific client drivers.

CONFIG_MLX5_INFINIBAND=(y/n/m) (module mlx5_ib.ko)

| Provides low-level InfiniBand/RDMA and RoCE <https://enterprise-support.nvidia.com/s/article/recommended-network-configuration-examples-for-roce-deployment>_ support.

CONFIG_MLX5_MPFS=(y/n)

| Ethernet Multi-Physical Function Switch (MPFS) support in ConnectX NIC. | MPFs is required for when Multi-Host <https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/networking/multi-host/>_ configuration is enabled to allow passing | user configured unicast MAC addresses to the requesting PF.

CONFIG_MLX5_SF=(y/n)

| Build support for subfunction. | Subfunctons are more light weight than PCI SRIOV VFs. Choosing this option | will enable support for creating subfunction devices.

CONFIG_MLX5_SF_MANAGER=(y/n)

| Build support for subfuction port in the NIC. A Mellanox subfunction | port is managed through devlink. A subfunction supports RDMA, netdevice | and vdpa device. It is similar to a SRIOV VF but it doesn't require | SRIOV support.

CONFIG_MLX5_SW_STEERING=(y/n)

| Build support for software-managed steering in the NIC.

CONFIG_MLX5_HW_STEERING=(y/n)

| Build support for hardware-managed steering in the NIC.

CONFIG_MLX5_TC_CT=(y/n)

| Support offloading connection tracking rules via tc ct action.

CONFIG_MLX5_TC_SAMPLE=(y/n)

| Support offloading sample rules via tc sample action.

CONFIG_MLX5_VDPA=(y/n)

| Support library for Mellanox VDPA drivers. Provides code that is | common for all types of VDPA drivers. The following drivers are planned: | net, block.

CONFIG_MLX5_VDPA_NET=(y/n)

| VDPA network driver for ConnectX6 and newer. Provides offloading | of virtio net datapath such that descriptors put on the ring will | be executed by the hardware. It also supports a variety of stateless | offloads depending on the actual device used and firmware version.

CONFIG_MLX5_VFIO_PCI=(y/n)

| This provides migration support for MLX5 devices using the VFIO framework.

External options ( Choose if the corresponding mlx5 feature is required )

  • CONFIG_MLXFW: When chosen, mlx5 firmware flashing support will be enabled (via devlink and ethtool).
  • CONFIG_PTP_1588_CLOCK: When chosen, mlx5 ptp support will be enabled
  • CONFIG_VXLAN: When chosen, mlx5 vxlan support will be enabled.