16/02/2026 12:32, Bruce Richardson:
> On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 10:48:15AM +0000, Bruce Richardson wrote:
> > On Fri, Jan 23, 2026 at 05:57:41PM +0100, Thierry Herbelot wrote:
> > > On 1/23/26 17:50, Bruce Richardson wrote:
> > > > On Fri, Jan 23, 2026 at 05:27:07PM +0100, Thierry Herbelot wrote:
> > > > > After an upstream patch (see Fixes), net_ixgbe_vf is no longer
> > > > > declared in testpmd PMD info, when compiling under Redhat-9:
> > > > >
> > > > > > $ meson setup build && ninja -C build
> > > > > > $ ./usertools/dpdk-pmdinfo.py build/app/dpdk-testpmd|grep ixgbe
> > > > > > "name": "net_ixgbe",
> > > > >
> > > > > Name 'net_ixgbe_vf' should also be reported.
> > > > >
> > > > > One workaround is to move 'intel/ixgbe' as last in the list of Intel
> > > > > drivers. This restores net_ixgbe_vf under Redhat-9:
> > > > >
> > > > > > $ meson setup build && ninja -C build
> > > > > > $ ./usertools/dpdk-pmdinfo.py build/app/dpdk-testpmd|grep ixgbe
> > > > > > "name": "net_ixgbe_vf",
> > > > > > "name": "net_ixgbe",
> > > > >
> > > > > Fixes: 04f1b16c54f3 ("drivers: merge common and net idpf drivers")
> > > > > Signed-off-by: Thierry Herbelot <[email protected]>
> > > > > ---
> > > > > V2: use shorter lines in commit log.
> > > > > ---
> > > > > drivers/net/meson.build | 2 +-
> > > > > 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> > > > >
> > > > > diff --git a/drivers/net/meson.build b/drivers/net/meson.build
> > > > > index c7dae4ad273c..8d96244cdbb0 100644
> > > > > --- a/drivers/net/meson.build
> > > > > +++ b/drivers/net/meson.build
> > > > > @@ -32,8 +32,8 @@ drivers = [
> > > > > 'intel/ice',
> > > > > 'intel/idpf',
> > > > > 'intel/ipn3ke',
> > > > > - 'intel/ixgbe',
> > > > > 'intel/cpfl', # depends on idpf, so must come after it
> > > > > + 'intel/ixgbe',
> > > > > 'ionic',
> > > > > 'mana',
> > > > > 'memif',
> > > >
> > > > This is a strange one - did you do any investgation into why or how this
> > > > fixes things? You describe it as a workaround so any hints towards a
> > > > proper
> > > > root cause and fix are welcome :-)
> > >
> > > Hello Bruce,
> > >
> > > This is indeed a bit puzzling: it seems that the expected ELF section is
> > > present, a 'strings' dump shows no difference between a 'full' testpmd and
> > > one missing ixgbe_vf. Still pmdinfo is missing one PMD.
> > >
> > > The issue was not seen when using Ubuntu-24.04.
> > >
> > [Not unexpectedly,] it appears that there is more to it than just missing
> > this driver. Installing a centos 9 VM and doing a clang build and comparing
> > the pmdinfo output to the GCC build output, I find there are in fact 3
> > missing drivers in the output: net_dpaa2, net_ixgbe_vf, and net_sfc_efx.
> >
> > Changing the order of things to move down ixgbe makes ixgbe_vf and sfc_efx
> > reappear, but sadly net_vcpf now disappears. :-(
> > Therefore, more investigation and root causing is needed to find a proper
> > fix.
> >
> Doing a bit of poking with strings on the various binaries has shown why
> some of these strings are not showing up despite being present in the
> binary. In some cases, the bytes leading up to "PMD_INFO_STRING=" are
> printable characters, in which case the PMD gets omitted from the output as
> the ascii string found does not _start_ with PMD_INFO_STRING.
>
> Given this info, I'm not sure whether this should be fixed in the code, is
> a compiler issue, or whether we should just modify our script to find
> PMD_INFO_STRING anywhere in output strings not just at the start.
>
> Suggestions?
I feel it would be more reliable to find the string anywhere.
