pass through only 1 on 2 identical NIC cards

[zebrahost]

I have 2 identical nic cards but I only wish to pass through one of them (not both). Unfortunately the vfio.conf file would point to both instances of the card as they they same xxxx:yyyy code and therefore I presume load the vfio-pci driver for both cards.

04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection [8086:10d3]
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter [8086:a01f]
        Kernel driver in use: e1000e
        Kernel modules: e1000e
05:00.0 IDE interface [0101]: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE9172 SATA III 6Gb/s RAID Controller [1b4b:917a] (rev 11)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. 88SE9172 SATA III 6Gb/s RAID Controller [1043:8477]
        Kernel driver in use: ahci
        Kernel modules: ahci, pata_acpi
06:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection [8086:10d3]
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter [8086:a01f]
        Kernel driver in use: e1000e
        Kernel modules: e1000e

I wish to pass through card 04:00 but not 06:00; Is there a way I can force only one card to load the vfio-pci driver with the other loading the e1000e driver? Note: they both have id of 8086:a01f.

My only other idea is swap out one of the intel cards for another no brand NIC card (which is less than perfect). I am sure there must be a better way to identify the specific card.

 

[zebrahost]

I think I have found something to test
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF#Using_identical_guest_and_host_GPUs
Not tested!

 

[MacDaddyBighorn]

Did you ever get your situation sorted out? I'm in a similar boat, but have no choice in NIC as it is a custom component.