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Chapter 2. Device Drivers

This chapter provides a comprehensive listing of all device drivers which were updated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4.

Storage Drivers

  • The Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD) device driver has been updated to detect path configuration errors that cannot be detected by hardware or microcode. Upon successful detection, the device driver does not use such paths. With this feature, for example, the DASD device driver detects paths that are assigned to a specific subchannel but lead to different storage servers.
  • The zfcp device driver has been updated to add data structures and error handling to support the enhanced mode of the System z Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) adapter card. In this mode, the adapter passes data directly from memory to the SAN (data routing) when memory on the adapter card is blocked by large and slow I/O requests.
  • The mtip32xx driver has been updated to add support for the latest PCIe SSD drives.
  • The lpfc driver for Emulex Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters has been updated to version 8.3.5.86.1p.
  • The qla2xxx driver for QLogic Fibre Channel HBAs has been updated to version 8.04.00.04.06.4-k, which adds support for QLogic's 83XX Converged Network Adapter (CNA), 16 GBps FC support for QLogic adapters, and new Form Factor CNA for HP ProLiant servers.
  • The qla4xxxx driver has been updated to version v5.03.00.00.06.04-k0, which adds change_queue_depth API support, fixes a number of bugs, and introduces various enhancements.
  • The ql2400-firmware firmware for QLogic 4Gbps fibre channel HBA has been updated to version 5.08.00.
  • The ql2500-firmware firmware for QLogic 4Gbps fibre channel HBA has been updated to version 5.08.00.
  • The ipr driver for IBM Power Linux RAID SCSI HBAs has been updated to version 2.5.4, which adds support for the Power7 6Gb SAS adapters and enables SAS VRAID capability on these adapters.
  • The hpsa driver has been updated to version 2.0.2-4-RH1 to add PCI-IDs for the HP Smart Array Generation 8 family of controllers.
  • The bnx2i driver for Broadcom NetXtreme II iSCSI has been updated to version 2.7.2.2 with general hardware support enablements. iSCSI and FCoE boot support on Broadcom devices is now fully supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4. These two features are provided by the bnx2i and bnx2fc Broadcom drivers.
  • The bnx2fc driver for the Broadcom Netxtreme II 57712 chip has been updated to version 1.0.12.
    iSCSI and FCoE boot support on Broadcom devices is now fully supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4. These two features are provided by the bnx2i and bnx2fc Broadcom drivers.
  • The mpt2sas driver has been updated to version 13.101.00.00, which adds multi-segment mode support for the Linux BSG Driver.
  • The Brocade bfa Fibre Channel and FCoE driver has been updated to version 3.0.23.0 which includes Brocade 1860 16Gbps Fibre Channel Adapter support, new hardware support in Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation servers, and issue_lip support. The bfa firmware was updated to version 3.0.3.1.
  • The be2iscsi driver for ServerEngines BladeEngine 2 Open iSCSI devices has been updated to version 4.4.58.0r to add iSCSI netlink VLAN support.
  • The qib driver for TrueScale HCAs has been updated to the latest version with the following enhancements:
    • Enhanced NUMA awareness
    • Congestion Control Agent (CCA) for Performance Scale Messaging (PSM) fabrics
    • Dual Rail for PSM fabrics
    • Performance enhancements and bug fixes
  • The following drivers have been updated to include latest upstream features and bug fixes: ahci, md/bitmap, raid0, raid1, raid10, and raid456.

Network Drivers

  • The netxen_nic driver for NetXen Multi port (1/10) Gigabit Network has been updated to version 4.0.80, which adds miniDIMM support. The netxen_nic firmware has been updated to version 4.0.588.
  • The bnx2x driver has been updated to the version 1.72.51-0 to include support for Broadcom 57800/57810/57811/57840 chips as well as general bug fixes and updated firmware for Broadcom 57710/57711/57712 chips. This update also includes the following enhancements:
    • Support for iSCSI offload and Data Center Bridging/Fibre Channel over Ethernet (DCB/FCOE) on Broadcom 57712/578xx chips. The Broadcom 57840 chip is supported in a 4x10G configuration only and does not support iSCSI offload and FCoE. Future releases will support additional configurations and iSCSI offload and FCoE.
    • Additional physical layer support, including Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE).
    • iSCSI offload enhancements
    • OEM-specific features
  • The be2net driver for Emulex OneConnect 10GbE Network Adapters has been updated to version 4.4.31.0r. The SR-IOV functionality of the Emulex be2net driver is now fully supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4. SR-IOV runs on all Emulex-branded and OEM variants of BE3-based hardware (with minimum firmware version 4.2.324.30), which all require the be2net driver software.
  • The ixgbevf driver has been updated to version 2.6.0-k to include the latest hardware support, enhancements, and bug fixes.
  • The cxgb4 driver for Chelsio Terminator4 10G Unified Wire Network Controllers has been updated to add support for Chelsio's T480-CR and T440-LP-CR adapters.
  • The cxgb3 driver for the Chelsio T3 Family of network devices has been updated to version 1.1.5-ko.
  • The ixgbe driver for Intel 10 Gigabit PCI Express network devices has been updated to version 3.9.15-k to include support for SR-IOV with Data Center Bridging (DCB) or Receive-Side Scaling (RSS), PTP support as a Technology Preview, latest hardware support, enhancements, and bug fixes.
  • The iw_cxgb3 driver has been updated.
  • The iw_cxgb4 driver has been updated.
  • The e1000e driver for Intel PRO/1000 network devices has been updated to add the latest hardware support, features, and provide a number of bug fixes.
  • The enic driver for Cisco 10G Ethernet devices has been updated to version 2.1.1.39.
  • The igbvf driver (Intel Gigabit Virtual Function Network driver) has been updated to the latest upstream version.
  • The igb driver for Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapters has been updated to version 4.0.1 to add the latest hardware support. Also, PTP support has been added to the igb driver as a Technology Preview.
  • The tg3 driver for Broadcom Tigon3 Ethernet devices has been updated to version 3.124 to add new hardware support. Also, PTP support has been added to the tg3 driver as a Technology Preview.
  • The qlcnic driver for the HP NC-Series QLogic 10 Gigabit Server Adapters has been updated to version 5.0.29.
  • The Brocade bna driver for Brocade 10Gb PCIe Ethernet Controllers driver has been updated to version 3.0.23.0 to add new hardware support for Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation servers, and enable the use of non-Brocade Twinax Copper cables. The bna firmware was updated to version 3.0.3.1.
  • The Broadcom NetXtreme II cnic driver has been updated to version 2.5.13 to include new features, bug fixes, and support for new OEM platforms.
  • The wireless drivers have been updated to upstream version 3.5, including the iwlwifi driver for Intel wireless LAN adapters and the ath9k driver for PCI/PCI-Express adapters with Atheros wireless LAN chipsets. Additionally, the rt2800pci and rt2800usb drivers have been added to support various USB and PCI/PCI-Express adapters with Ralink wireless LAN chipsets.

Miscellaneous Drivers

  • The intel_idle cpuidle driver for Intel processors has been updated to add support for Intel's Xeon E5-XXX V2 series of processors.
  • The wacom driver has been updated to add support for the CTL-460 Wacom Bamboo Pen, the Wacom Intuos5 Tablet, and the Wacom Cintiq 22HD Pen Display.
  • The ALSA HDA audio driver has been updated to enable or improve support for new hardware and fix a number of bugs.
  • The mlx4_en driver has been updated to the latest upstream version.
  • The mlx4_ib driver has been updated to the latest upstream version.
  • The mlx4_core driver has been updated to the latest upstream version.
  • The z90crypt device driver has been updated to support the new Crypto Express 4 (CEX4) adapter card.