Configure the host for real-time Ethernet communication

Real-time Ethernet communication is only supported on the latest Beckhoff IPCs. For these IPCs, the vfio-pci kernel module must be used as a driver for the Ethernet controller, which is intended for real-time communication.

To easily assign the vfio-pci driver to the supported Ethernet controllers, you can use the libtcrte package.

sudo apt install libtcrte

Once the package is installed, you can use the TcRteInstall tool to assign the vfio-pci driver to the Ethernet controllers. For more information see TcRteInstall -h.

Example

For example, running sudo TcRteInstall -l could generate the following output:

sudo TcRteInstall -l
No Name MAC Standort Treiber Override Modell
0 enp3s0 00:01:05:9d:43:21 0000:03:00.0 igc [-] Ethernet Controller I226-IT
1 enp2s0 00:01:05:9d:43:20 0000:02:00.0 igc [-] Ethernet Controller I226-IT

To assign the vfio-pci driver to the enp3s0 interface, use the following command:

sudo TcRteInstall -b 0000:03:00.0

You can check the result by listing the interfaces again with sudo TcRteInstall -l:

sudo TcRteInstall -l
No Name MAC Standort Treiber Override Modell
0 enp3s0 unbekannt 0000:03:00.0 vfio-pci [*] Ethernet Controller I226-IT
1 enp2s0 00:01:05:9d:43:20 0000:02:00.0 igc [-] Ethernet Controller I226-IT