Subject: Re: [PATCH net 2/2] r8169: disable interrupts also for GRO-scheduled NAPI

From: Jakub Kicinski <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 May 2024 09:49:08 -0700

On Tue, 14 May 2024 18:35:46 +0200 Heiner Kallweit wrote:
> > I thought the bug is because of a race with disable.  
> 
> No, the second napi_poll() in this scenario is executed with device
> interrupts enabled, what triggers a (supposedly) hw bug under heavy
> load. So the fix is to disable device interrupts also in the case
> that NAPI is already scheduled when entering the interrupt handler.
> 
> > But there's already a synchronize_net() after disable, so NAPI poll
> > must fully exit before we mask in rtl8169_cleanup().
> > 
> > If the bug is double-enable you describe the fix is just making 
> > the race window smaller. But I don't think that's the bug.
> > 
> > BTW why are events only acked in rtl8169_interrupt() and not
> > rtl8169_poll()?   
> 
> You mean clearing the rx/tx-related interrupt status bits only
> after napi_complete_done(), as an alternative to disabling
> device interrupts?

Before, basically ack them at the start of a poll function.
If gro_timeout / IRQ suppression is not enabled it won't make 
much of a difference. Probably also won't make much difference
with iperf.

But normally traffic is bursty so with gro_timeout we can see 
something like:

    packets: x x  x  x x   <  no more packets  >
IRQ pending: xxx  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        ISR:    []                      []
    IRQ ack:    x                       x
       NAPI:     [=====] < timeout > [=] [=] < timeout > [=]

Acking at the beginning of NAPI poll can't make us miss events 
but we'd clear the pending IRQ on the "deferred" NAPI run, avoiding 
an extra HW IRQ and 2 NAPI calls:

    packets: x x  x  x x   <  no more packets  >
IRQ pending: xxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        ISR:    []                   
    IRQ ack:     x                   x
       NAPI:     [=====] < timeout > [=]