Dennis HilkLinux diagnosticsDE

Virtual & unusual hardware

Virtio socket transport over modern PCI

Virtual sockets communicate using context IDs rather than an ordinary Ethernet interface or IP address.

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On this page
  1. Overview & identity
  2. Driver & binding
  3. Firmware
  4. Read-only diagnostics
  5. Limitations & related issues
  6. References

Overview & identity

The checked modern PCI rule maps 1af4:1053 to virtio type 19 (vsock). This is a virtual function identity, not the host hardware model. Transitional PCI IDs use a different subsystem-ID rule and are deliberately not inferred here.

Curated identifiers
pci 1af4:1053

A numeric match establishes a candidate family within the reviewed evidence. Marketing names, board variants, subsystem conditions and successful operation remain separate questions.

Driver & binding

The checked virtio-vsock function matches type 19. The source builds vmw_vsock_virtio_transport despite its VMware-derived name; that module name does not prove a VMware hypervisor, and vsock is not virtio_net. lspci can therefore correctly report virtio-pci while the child function is bound to vmw_vsock_virtio_transport.

  • virtio_pci — kernel driver/module candidate
  • vmw_vsock_virtio_transport — kernel driver/module candidate

Detected, bound, operational: learn the difference

Firmware

No host payload established here

No external firmware filename was established in the checked driver path. This does not describe firmware stored inside the device.

Inspect firmware packaging on your distribution

Read-only diagnostics

Run one displayed command at a time. Replace uppercase placeholders with the affected device, interface or module from your own output. Commands are never executed here. Read-only output can still contain private identifiers.

Inspect the PCI function and binding

lspci -nnk -s BDF

Replace BDF with the complete address, for example 0000:00:14.0. This read-only query needs pciutils and normally no sudo. “Kernel driver in use” is observed binding; “Kernel modules” lists candidates.

Inspect the virtio child function driver

ls -l /sys/bus/pci/devices/BDF/virtio*/driver

Replace BDF with the full observed PCI address. Read the child driver link without sudo; virtio_pci is the PCI transport, while this link belongs to the function driver. A missing child or link means that this layer was not observed.

Inspect the installed vsock module metadata

modinfo vmw_vsock_virtio_transport

This read-only kmod query normally needs no sudo and does not load the module. Metadata proves the module file is available for the selected kernel; built-in drivers or unavailable module indexes can leave this check empty without proving absent binding.

Limitations & related issues

Driver registration does not establish a listening host service, the intended context ID or authorization. Do not send probe messages or treat a missing IP interface as evidence that this transport failed.

These guides are linked for relevant observations, not as known defects of every device in this family.

Choose a hardware diagnostic workflow · Inspect a log excerpt in Fix Lab

References

Source review records a checked implementation or document, not a reproduced hardware test. Version-specific tables do not establish a minimum kernel or guaranteed operation.