Hello dev at dpdk.org In section "3.3.5.6 Update link mode" of the XL710 datasheet Rev2.4 there is a description on how to change the link mode configuration of the NIC to enable support for breakout cable (4x10). This can also be accomplished via the qcu utility provided by intel.
What I am looking for is whether there is way to reliably detect if a breakout cable is plugged into the XL710 at run time. Keeping also in mind that the cable could be either in the form of direct attach 4x10 or a standard qsfp + breakout fiber cable. The end goal here is to automatically change the link mode of the NIC to the appropriate value without requiring any manual step from user. For example if direct attach 4x10 cable is plugged into the XL710 port, detect this and switch the link mode configuration to 4x10. After looking into the i40e_* API and the datasheet, I can't find a way to reliably perform this kind of check and I'm now wondering if anyone knows if this is at all possible and if so, how I could go about performing this kind of check. Thank you, Efstratios Karatzas
