Hi Stephen, Seems you missed an important point, MLNX_OFED is still supported with this driver allowing it to work on stable releases like strict debian 9 i.e. without updating the Linux kernel.
On Tue, Jan 02, 2018 at 01:44:21PM -0800, Stephen Hemminger wrote: > The current driver requires v16. It will not work or build with > the older version (as in Debian stable). Note: libmlx5 is rolled > into rdma-core in current versions. > > Mlx4 probably requires similar documentation update. > > Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <sthem...@microsoft.com> > --- > doc/guides/nics/mlx5.rst | 18 +++++++++--------- > 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/doc/guides/nics/mlx5.rst b/doc/guides/nics/mlx5.rst > index f9558da89b61..603dd4e9c1cd 100644 > --- a/doc/guides/nics/mlx5.rst > +++ b/doc/guides/nics/mlx5.rst > @@ -299,26 +299,26 @@ Prerequisites > ------------- > > This driver relies on external libraries and kernel drivers for resources > -allocations and initialization. The following dependencies are not part of > -DPDK and must be installed separately: > +allocations and initialization. The following packages come from the > +Linux RDMA core https://github.com/linux-rdma/rdma-core. The current > +version of this driver requires version version 16 or later. Not only, they are also present in MLNX_OFED >= 4.2 for regular distribution without updating the Linux Kernel. In such situation installing RDMA-Core is useless. > - **libibverbs** > > User space Verbs framework used by librte_pmd_mlx5. This library provides > - a generic interface between the kernel and low-level user space drivers > - such as libmlx5. > + a generic interface between the kernel and low-level user space drivers. > > It allows slow and privileged operations (context initialization, hardware > resources allocations) to be managed by the kernel and fast operations to > never leave user space. > > -- **libmlx5** > + The development package (libibverbs-dev or libibverbs-devel) are necessary > + for compilation. Not really MLNX_OFED >= 4.2 or libibverbs-dev or libibverbs-devel are necessary. People using MLNX_OFED must not install libibverbs-dev(el) packages. > - Low-level user space driver library for Mellanox ConnectX-4/ConnectX-5 > - devices, it is automatically loaded by libibverbs. > +- **rdma-core** > > - This library basically implements send/receive calls to the hardware > - queues. > + The basic userspace infrastructure for interaction with RDMA subsystem > + on Linux. > > - **Kernel modules** > > -- > 2.15.1 Keep both situation in the documentation for costumers who uses: - stable distribution in conjunction with MLNX_OFED - stable distribution with updated Linux kernel using RDMA-Core. Both are supported. Thanks, -- Nélio Laranjeiro 6WIND
