Virtualization - Dec 2007 - [PATCH resent] virtio_net: Fix stalled inbound traffic on early packets

Hello Rusty,

while implementing and testing virtio on s390 I found a problem in
virtio_net: The current virtio_net driver has a startup race, which
prevents any incoming traffic:

If try_fill_recv submits buffers to the host system data might be
filled in and an interrupt is sent, before napi_enable finishes.
In that case the interrupt will kick skb_recv_done which will then
call netif_rx_schedule. netif_rx_schedule checks, if NAPI_STATE_SCHED
is set - which is not as we did not run napi_enable. No poll routine
is scheduled. Furthermore, skb_recv_done returns false, we disables
interrupts for this device.

One solution is the enable napi before inbound buffer are available.

Signed-off-by: Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@de.ibm.com>
---
 drivers/net/virtio_net.c |    6 ++++--
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Index: kvm/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
==================================================================---
kvm.orig/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
+++ kvm/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
@@ -285,13 +285,15 @@ static int virtnet_open(struct net_devic
 {
 	struct virtnet_info *vi = netdev_priv(dev);
 
+	napi_enable(&vi->napi);
 	try_fill_recv(vi);
 
 	/* If we didn't even get one input buffer, we're useless. */
-	if (vi->num == 0)
+	if (vi->num == 0) {
+		napi_disable(&vi->napi);
 		return -ENOMEM;
+	}
 
-	napi_enable(&vi->napi);
 	return 0;
 }

Christian Borntraeger wrote:
>
> Hello Rusty,
>
> while implementing and testing virtio on s390 I found a problem in
> virtio_net: The current virtio_net driver has a startup race, which
> prevents any incoming traffic:
>
> If try_fill_recv submits buffers to the host system data might be
> filled in and an interrupt is sent, before napi_enable finishes.
> In that case the interrupt will kick skb_recv_done which will then
> call netif_rx_schedule. netif_rx_schedule checks, if NAPI_STATE_SCHED
> is set - which is not as we did not run napi_enable. No poll routine
> is scheduled. Furthermore, skb_recv_done returns false, we disables
> interrupts for this device.
>
> One solution is the enable napi before inbound buffer are available.
>
But then you might get recv interrupt without a buffer.
The way other physical NICs doing it is by dis/en/abling interrupt using 
registers (look at e1000).
I suggest we can export add_status and use the original code but
before enabling napi add a call to add_status(dev, VIRTIO_CONFIG_DEV_OPEN).
The host won't trigger an irq until it sees the above.

BTW: Rusty is on vacation and that's probably the reason he didn't
respond.
Regards,
Dor.
>
> Signed-off-by: Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@de.ibm.com>
> ---
>  drivers/net/virtio_net.c |    6 ++++--
>  1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> Index: kvm/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
>
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> --- kvm.orig/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
> +++ kvm/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
> @@ -285,13 +285,15 @@ static int virtnet_open(struct net_devic
>  {
>         struct virtnet_info *vi =3D netdev_priv(dev);
>
> +       napi_enable(&vi->napi);
>         try_fill_recv(vi);
>
>         /* If we didn't even get one input buffer, we're useless.
*/
> -       if (vi->num =3D=3D 0)
> +       if (vi->num =3D=3D 0) {
> +               napi_disable(&vi->napi);
>                 return -ENOMEM;
> +       }
>
> -       napi_enable(&vi->napi);
>         return 0;
>  }
>
>
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