---
name: "mge"
section: "4"
platform: "freebsd"
package: "base"
version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79"
release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)"
platforms: ["freebsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/if_mge"
---

# mge(4)

Marvell Gigabit Ethernet device driver

Part of [if\_mge(4)](/if_mge/4.md).

## NAME

**mge** – Marvell Gigabit Ethernet device driver

## SYNOPSIS

To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:

**device mge** **device miibus**

## DESCRIPTION

The **mge** driver provides support for gigabit Ethernet controller integrated in Marvell system-on-chip devices.

The **mge** driver supports the following media types:

- autoselect

  Enable autoselection of the media type and options

- 10baseT/UTP

  Set 10Mbps operation

- 100baseTX

  Set 100Mbps operation

- 1000baseT

  Set 1000baseT operation

The **mge** driver supports the following media options:

- full-duplex

  Set full duplex operation

The **mge** driver supports polled operation when the system is configured with DEVICE\_POLLING kernel option, see [polling(4)](/polling/4.md) for more details.

The **mge** driver supports reception and transmission of extended frames for [vlan(4)](/vlan/4.md). This capability of **mge** can be controlled by means of the **vlanmtu** parameter to [ifconfig(8)](/ifconfig/8.md).

The **mge** driver supports interrupts coalescing (IC) so that raising a transmit/receive frame interrupt is delayed, if possible, until a threshold-defined period of time has elapsed. The following sysctls regulate this behaviour (separately for each path):

- *dev.mge.X.int\_coal.rx\_time*

  - *dev.mge.X.int\_coal.tx\_time*

  Value of 0 disables IC on the given path, value greater than zero corresponds to a real time period and is expressed in units equivalent to 64 ticks of the MGE clock. Maximum allowed value depends on MGE hardware revision. User provided values larger than supported will be trimmed to the maximum supported. More details are available in the reference manual of the device.

## HARDWARE

Gigabit Ethernet controllers built into the following Marvell systems-on-chip are known to work with the **mge** driver:

- Orion 88F5182

- Orion 88F5281

- Kirkwood 88F6281 (MGE V2)

- Discovery MV78100 (MGE V2)

There are also Marvell system controllers for PowerPC processors, which include a variation of this gigabit Ethernet module integrated on chip, and they should also work with the **mge** driver, but this wasn't tested:

- MV64430

- MV64460, MV64461, MV64462

## SEE ALSO

[altq(4)](/altq/4.md), [arp(4)](/arp/4.md), [miibus(4)](/miibus/4.md), [netintro(4)](/netintro/4.md), [ng\_ether(4)](/ng_ether/4.md), [polling(4)](/polling/4.md), [vlan(4)](/vlan/4.md), [ifconfig(8)](/ifconfig/8.md)

## HISTORY

The **mge** device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.

## AUTHORS

The base version of **mge** device driver was written by Grzegorz Bernacki. It has been extended with advanced features (polling, interrupt coalescing, multicast, h/w checksum calculation etc.) by Piotr Ziecik. This manual page was written by Rafal Jaworowski.