To use most SFP+'s with Intel NICs, one has to load ixgbe with allow_unsupported_sfp=1 due to Intel's wanking. Ultimately this isn't a huge deal, but it's still an instance of corporate crap needlessly complicating Free software.
But thanks to open source, being able to look at the driver and understanding how that SFP check is done, some people at the Serve The Home forum were able to figure out which EEPROM bit needs to be flipped for these cards to accept any and all SFP modules: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/patching-i...
I saw that and wrote an automated patcher as a quick python hack to automate that: https://gist.github.com/ixs/dbaac42730dea9bd124f26cbd439c58e