10Gb EOs Linux (drivers : howto)

General system Newbie
1

Iam tinkering with the idea off doing 10Gb network between two machines, possibly more, this is all
theoretical at this stage.

The hardware Iam buying has a 2.5Gb Eth, put to get that going would require a switch/hub to
expensive. This put me on the line for 10gb research which I am currently doing.

I have watched a 3part video on UTube, Video1 Video 2 Video 3
this is old now but I have discoverd that for 10Gb networking you dont need a hub/switch so the price
becomes affordable at under £80 on ebay for two cards and cable.

I understand from reading ity bity mention here in the forums that drivers need to be compiled into
the kernel for these cards to work. The cards I have in mind are MNPA19-XTR 10GB Mellanox ConnectX-2 10Gbe Where can I find reliable info on driver ability information? I googled but found nothing.

I plan to run videos(files) between two machines quite regularly, I have in the past tried this with
movies and found that the connection 1Gb Eth became very slow to the point off taking multiple
hours to transfer files, media library’s(multiple files).

So my main questions are drivers? Any upto date info guides? thoughts?

Note to mods please move to appropriate forum if this is not correct place.

–
Data

2

I have a 10 GB ethernet adapter and i use Cat 6a cable for my Internet connection. This would probably be good enough?

47490

My service is only 1.5 GB and I’m getting 1.72 GB at the modem. I’m sure data transfer between computers would be pretty good?

Edit: This is the hardware that is on it.

Device-1: Aquantia AQC107 NBase-T/IEEE 802.3bz Ethernet [AQtion]
    driver: atlantic v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 4 port: N/A
    bus-ID: 23:00.0 chip-ID: 1d6a:07b1 class-ID: 0200
3

thanks @ricklinux I had these in mind they are total for bundle approximately half the uk price.
10GCardEbay

2PCS MNPA19-XTR 10GB Mellanox ConnectX-2 10Gbe 1m SFP+ Cable Network Card

Was after information to on how to find driver information and general howto!
Does anyone know a good site/UTube video …?

–
Data

4

I have no idea what chip is used on them?

Edit: Looks like Nvidia owns thems since 2019 so there are linux drivers as far as i can tell looking at this.

Edit2: Should be in the kernel I’m guessing.

drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5

Edit3: This is pretty recent. I think there may be version 4.7?

http://canali.hopto.org/linux/source/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/eswitch.c

Edit4: Hopefully i have the right stuff here?

Edit5: Here is what is on EOS

Screenshot_20220521_100655

5

@ricklinux Thanks.
So in the kernel already ok no need to worry then.

6

I think so but I can’t be 100% sure. I think there are some other users i came across using these types of network cards. Not sure what brand or model?

7

I’m not 100% mellanox is upstream driver wise but Linux support is 1000% guaranteed because they’re big in the data center and lacking support there is suicide

8

@Data
In case you need more info.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1051206-start-0.html

9

Thanks this is just the sort of news Im wanting to here.
I pickup the MBoard+chip(see what you bought in pictures Here)tomorrow
will add this 10gb info on Mellanox next.