1. Release Notes for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 5 Update 1
  2. New Features and Changes
  3. Driver Updates

Driver Updates

The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 5 supports a large number of hardware and devices. In close cooperation with hardware and storage vendors, Oracle has updated several device drivers from the versions in mainline Linux 4.14.35.

A complete list of the driver modules included in UEK R5U1 along with version information is provided in the appendix at Driver Modules in Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 5 Update 1 (x86_64).

Notable Driver Features

The following new features are noted in the drivers shipped with UEK R5U1 as opposed to the original release of UEK R5:

  • Broadcom/Emulex BCM573xx NIC driver updated to version 1.9.2

    The Broadcom/Emulex BCM573xx NIC driver, bnxt_en, has been updated to version 1.9.2 in this kernel update release. This update includes many upstream patches and bug fixes. Notable changes to the driver include: added Phy retry logic needed to enable hotplug functionality; DCBNL DSCP application protocol support; hwmon sysfs support; improvements to firmware notification about state changes; support for ethtool get dump; and a new VF resource allocation strategy mode.

  • Microsemi Smart Family Controller driver updated to version 1.1.4-130

    The Microsemi Smart Family Controller driver, smartpqi, has been updated to version 1.1.4-130 in this kernel update release. This update includes many upstream patches and bug fixes. Notable changes include a fix for a critical ARM issue when reading PQI index registers and improvements to the handling of sync requests.

  • Broadcom/Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI driver updated to 12.0.0.7

    The Broadcom/Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI driver, lpfc has been updated to version 12.0.0.7. Many upstream patches were applied for bug fixes and enhancements. Notable changes include the removal of the lpfc_enable_pdbe module parameter; reduced locking when updating statistics; and added support to retrieve firmware logs. This release also includes improvements to the framework to enable NVMe on Fibre Channel. Note that FC-NVMe in lpfc is available as a technical preview.

  • QLogic Fibre Channel HBA driver updated to 10.00.00.07-k1

    The QLogic Fibre Channel HBA driver, qla2xxx has been updated to version 10.00.00.07-k1. Changes include many bug fixes for stability and performance. Notably, a fix was applied to enable local buffer boundary checking to resolve an issue that sometimes caused I/O to fail with a DMA error when the Data Integrity Feature (DIF) was enabled. A fix was also applied to resolve a null pointer dereference crash caused by an unexpected interrupt for a device that had not been set up by the driver. Improvements were also made to the code to provide better compatibility for builds on Arm platforms. This release also includes a number of vendor supplied and upstream patches to enable NVMe on Fibre Channel. Note that FC-NVMe in qla2xxx is available as a technical preview.

  • Intel PRO/1000 network driver updated

    The Intel PRO/1000 network driver, e1000e, is updated to fix interrupt handling for virtual devices that can fail to function properly inside VMWare virtual machines. The fix resolved a link check race condition following an ICR read.

  • Intel 10 Gigabit PCI Express network driver updated

    The Intel 10 Gigabit PCI Express network driver, ixgbe, and the virtual function driver, ixgbevf are patched to add IPsec offload support.

  • Avago MegaRAID SAS driver updated

    The Avago MegaRAID SAS driver, megaraid_sas, driver was patched to resolve an issue where the driver did not use CPU affinity correctly when hotplugging or unplugging CPUs. The issue could cause a system hang.