Users Guide

7–Linux Driver Software
Limitations
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Limitations
The Linux drivers have the limitations described in the following:
 bnx2x Driver Limitations
 bnx2i Driver Limitations
 bnx2fc Driver Limitations
bnx2x Driver Limitations
The current version of the driver has been tested on 2.6.x kernels, starting from
the 2.6.9 kernel. The bnx2x driver may not compile on kernels older than 2.6.9.
Testing is concentrated on i386 and x86_64 architectures. Only limited testing has
been done on some other architectures. Minor changes to some source files and
the makefile may be needed on some kernels.
bnx2i Driver Limitations
The current version of the driver has been tested on 2.6.x kernels, starting from
the 2.6.18 kernel. The bnx2i driver may not compile on older kernels. Testing is
concentrated on i386 and x86_64 architectures, RHEL 6, RHEL 7, and SUSE 11
SP1 and later distributions.
cnic The C-NIC driver provides the interface between QLogic’s upper-layer protocol (for
example, storage) drivers and QLogic’s BCM57xx and BCM57xxx 1Gb and 10Gb
network adapters. The C-NIC module works with the bnx2 and bnx2x network
drives in the downstream and the bnx2fc (FCoE) and bnx2i (iSCSI) drivers in the
upstream.
bnx2i Linux iSCSI Host Bus Adapter driver to enable iSCSI offload on the BCM57xx and
BCM57xxx 1Gb and 10Gb network adapters.
bnx2fc Linux FCoE kernel mode driver used to provide a translation layer between the
Linux SCSI stack and the QLogic FCoE firmware and hardware. In addition, the
driver interfaces with the networking layer to transmit and receive encapsulated
FCoE frames on behalf of the Open-FCoE libfc/libfcoe for FIP and device
discovery.
Table 7-1. QLogic BCM57xx and BCM57xxx Linux Drivers (Continued)
Linux Driver Description