How to Upgrade IGB NIC Driver

Upgrade IGB Driver to Fix Packet Loss Problems

The early versions of igb NIC/LAN driver were buggy, if your version look like this:

# ethtool -i eth1
driver: igb
version: 5.0.5-k

Any version under v5.2.15 is buggy and a simple ping test to your server will show packet loss issues, usually around 20%.

To upgrade the driver, use the following steps.

1) cd /root
2) wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000/files/igb%20stable/5.2.17/igb-5.2.17.tar.gz
3) tar -xvzf igb-5.2.17.tar.gz
4) cd igb-5.2.17/src/
5) make install
6) rmmod igb; modprobe igb
7) rmmod ixgbe; modprobe igb
8) vi /etc/sysconfig/modules/igb.modules

and set 

modprobe igb

9) Following is the output ::

=========================

root@server [~]# modinfo igb

filename: /lib/modules/2.6.32-504.12.2.el6.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/igb/igb.ko
version: 5.2.17
license: GPL
description: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Driver
author: Intel Corporation, 
srcversion: 420A0DE22C6377FB9C68995
alias: pci:v00008086d000010D6sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
=======\\=================
=======================
root@server [~]# lsmod | grep dca
dca 7101 1 igb
=======================

Let’s see the active version after the upgrade:

# ethtool -i eth1
driver: igb
version: 5.2.17
firmware-version: 1.52, 0x800007ae
bus-info: 0000:01:00.1
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

That resolves the issue. No reboot/restart is required.