Bug #6766
closed
Docs give wrong method of disabling ixgbe flow control
0%
Description
According to https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tuning_and_Troubleshooting_Network_Cards#Flow_Control, to disable flow control on the ix0 interface (ixgbe driver) you should set hw.ix.0.fc=0 in /boot/loader.conf.local. I tried this with pfSense 2.3 and it has no effect. What does work is to set dev.ix.0.fc to 0 using "System Tunables" in the GUI. It would be good to update the pfSense docs.
Updated by Duncan Sands over 8 years ago
At the top of the section it says "All of these go in /boot/loader.conf.local", but dev... can be done in System Tunables, which is much simpler. How about changing this:
Either this (pfSense 2.3+):to:
Either this (pfSense 2.3+), which can also be done using System Tunables:?
Updated by Jim Pingle over 8 years ago
We don't recommend doing that for hardware directives. It may work, but depending on what is being done it's safer to use loader.conf that way it's set properly from the moment the hardware is initialized rather than at some point after the system starts booting. Better to err on the side of caution there.
Updated by Duncan Sands over 8 years ago
I just checked and dev.ix.0.fc=0 has no effect when placed in /boot/loader.conf.local. Also, sysctl -T -a doesn't list dev.ix.0.fc as setable from the loader. As far as I can see, currently the only way to disable ixgbe flow control is dev.ix.0.fc=0 in System Tunables. How about this text:
Either this (pfSense 2.3+) in System Tunables: