MICROCODE_CTL(8) System Manager's Manual MICROCODE_CTL(8)NAME
microcode_ctl - microcode utility for Intel IA32 processors
SYNOPSIS
microcode_ctl [-h] [-i] [-u [-q]] [-Q] [-f microcode]
DESCRIPTION
The microcode_ctl utility is a companion to the IA32 microcode driver written by Tigran Aivazian <tigran@veritas.com>. The utility has two
uses:
a) it decodes and sends new microcode to the kernel driver to be uploaded to Intel IA32 processors. (Pentium Pro, PII, Celeron, PIII, Xeon,
Pentium 4 etc)
b) it signals the kernel driver to release the buffers containing the copy of microcode data actually applied to given CPU, linear array of
2048 bytes per CPU, see struct microcode in include/asm/processor.h for information on the layout of chunks buffers may hold
The microcode update is volatile and needs to be uploaded on each system boot i.e. it doesn't reflash your cpu permanently, reboot and it
reverts back to the old microcode.
-h display usage and exit
-i release any buffers held in microcode driver
-u upload microcode (from default filename)
-f upload microcode from named Intel formatted file
-q run silently when successful
-Q run silently even on failure
EXAMPLE
microcode_ctl -iu
Upload and free kernel buffers
FILES
/etc/microcode.dat
The default microcode location
AUTHOR
Microcode utility written by Simon Trimmer
Linux Kernel driver written by Tigran Aivazian.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to either Simon Trimmer <simon@veritas.com> or Tigran Aivazian <tigran@veritas.com>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2000 VERITAS Software
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICU-
LAR PURPOSE.
SPECIAL THANKS
Thanks to the Intel Corporation, for supplying microcode update data and publishing the specifications that enabled us to write microcode
driver for Linux.
SEE ALSO
The brave are recommended to view the driver source code located in the Linux Kernel source tree in arch/i386/kernel/microcode.c
Visit http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/ for more information and microcode updates.
microcode_ctl 17 January 2001 MICROCODE_CTL(8)
Check Out this Related Man Page
FXP(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual FXP(4)NAME
fxp -- Intel EtherExpress PRO/100 Ethernet device driver
SYNOPSIS
To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:
device miibus
device fxp
Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in loader.conf(5):
if_fxp_load="YES"
DESCRIPTION
The fxp driver provides support for Ethernet adapters based on the Intel i82557, i82558, i82559, i82550, and i82562 chips. The driver sup-
ports TCP/UDP/IP checksum offload for both transmit and receive on i82550 and i82551. On i82559 only TCP/UDP checksum offload for receive is
supported. TCP segmentation offload (TSO) for IPv4 as well as VLAN hardware tag insertion/stripping is supported on i82550 and i82551. Wake
On Lan (WOL) support is provided on all controllers except i82557, i82259ER and early i82558 revisions.
The fxp driver supports the following media types:
autoselect Enable autoselection of the media type and options. The autoselected mode can be overridden by adding the media options to
rc.conf(5).
10baseT/UTP Set 10Mbps operation.
100baseTX Set 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation.
The fxp driver supports the following media options:
full-duplex Force full duplex operation.
half-duplex Force half duplex operation.
Note that 100baseTX media type is not available on the Pro/10. For further information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).
The fxp driver supports reception and transmission of extended frames for vlan(4). This capability of fxp can be controlled by means of the
vlanmtu parameter to ifconfig(8).
The fxp driver also supports a special link option:
link0 Some chip revisions have loadable microcode which can be used to reduce the interrupt load on the host cpu. Not all boards have
microcode support. Setting the link0 flag with ifconfig(8) will download the microcode to the chip if it is available.
HARDWARE
Adapters supported by the fxp driver include:
o Intel EtherExpress PRO/10
o Intel InBusiness 10/100
o Intel PRO/100B / EtherExpressPRO/100 B PCI Adapter
o Intel PRO/100+ Management Adapter
o Intel PRO/100 VE Desktop Adapter
o Intel PRO/100 VM Network Connection
o Intel PRO/100 M Desktop Adapter
o Intel PRO/100 S Desktop, Server and Dual-Port Server Adapters
o Contec C-NET(PI)-100TX (PC-98)
o NEC PC-9821Ra20, Rv20, Xv13, Xv20 internal 100Base-TX (PC-98)
o NEC PC-9821X-B06 (PC-98)
o Many on-board network interfaces on Intel motherboards
LOADER TUNABLES
Tunables can be set at the loader(8) prompt before booting the kernel or stored in loader.conf(5). The following variables are available as
both loader(8) tunables and sysctl(8) variables:
dev.fxp.%d.int_delay
Maximum amount of time, in microseconds, that an interrupt may be delayed in an attempt to coalesce interrupts. This is only effec-
tive if the Intel microcode is loaded. The accepted range is 300 to 3000, the default is 1000.
dev.fxp.%d.bundle_max
Number of packets that will be bundled, before an interrupt is generated. This is only effective if the Intel microcode is loaded.
The accepted range is 1 to 65535, the default is 6.
SYSCTL VARIABLES
The following variables are available as sysctl(8) variables.
dev.fxp.%d.rnr
This is a read-only variable and shows the number of events of RNR (resource not ready).
dev.fxp.%d.stats
This is a read-only variable and displays useful MAC counters maintained in the driver.
DIAGNOSTICS
fxp%d: couldn't map memory A fatal initialization error has occurred.
fxp%d: couldn't map interrupt A fatal initialization error has occurred.
fxp%d: Failed to malloc memory There are not enough mbuf's available for allocation.
fxp%d: device timeout The device has stopped responding to the network, or there is a problem with the network connection (cable).
fxp%d: Microcode loaded, int_delay: %d usec bundle_max: %d The chip has successfully downloaded the microcode, and changed the parameter-
ized values to the given settings.
SEE ALSO altq(4), arp(4), miibus(4), netintro(4), ng_ether(4), polling(4), vlan(4), ifconfig(8)HISTORY
The fxp device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 2.1.
AUTHORS
The fxp device driver was written by David Greenman. It has then been updated to use the busdma API and made endian-clean by Maxime Henrion.
This manual page was written by David E. O'Brien.
BSD November 26, 2010 BSD