Subject: Re: [BUG] vhost_net: livelock in handle_rx() when GRO packet exceeds virtqueue capacity

From: "Michael S. Tsirkin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2026 19:10:02 -0500

On Sun, Mar 01, 2026 at 10:36:39PM +0000, ShuangYu wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> We have hit a severe livelock in vhost_net on 6.18.x. The vhost
> kernel thread spins at 100% CPU indefinitely in handle_rx(), and
> QEMU becomes unkillable (stuck in D state).
> [This is a text/plain messages]
> 
> Environment
> -----------
>   Kernel:  6.18.10-1.el8.elrepo.x86_64
>   QEMU:    7.2.19
>   Virtio:  VIRTIO_F_IN_ORDER is negotiated
>   Backend: vhost (kernel)
> 
> Symptoms
> --------
>   - vhost-<pid> kernel thread at 100% CPU (R state, never yields)
>   - QEMU stuck in D state at vhost_dev_flush() after receiving SIGTERM
>   - kill -9 has no effect on the QEMU process
>   - libvirt management plane deadlocks ("cannot acquire state change lock")
> 
> Root Cause
> ----------
> The livelock is triggered when a GRO-merged packet on the host TAP
> interface (e.g., ~60KB) exceeds the remaining free capacity of the
> guest's RX virtqueue (e.g., ~40KB of available buffers).
> 
> The loop in handle_rx() (drivers/vhost/net.c) proceeds as follows:
> 
>   1. get_rx_bufs() calls vhost_get_vq_desc_n() to fetch descriptors.
>     It advances vq->last_avail_idx and vq->next_avail_head as it
>     consumes buffers, but runs out before satisfying datalen.
> 
>   2. get_rx_bufs() jumps to err: and calls
>     vhost_discard_vq_desc(vq, headcount, n), which rolls back
>     vq->last_avail_idx and vq->next_avail_head.
> 
>     Critically, vq->avail_idx (the cached copy of the guest's
>     avail->idx) is NOT rolled back. This is correct behavior in
>     isolation, but creates a persistent mismatch:
> 
>       vq->avail_idx      = 108  (cached, unchanged)
>       vq->last_avail_idx = 104  (rolled back)
> 
>   3. handle_rx() sees headcount == 0 and calls vhost_enable_notify().
>     Inside, vhost_get_avail_idx() finds:
> 
>       vq->avail_idx (108) != vq->last_avail_idx (104)
> 
>     It returns 1 (true), indicating "new buffers available."
>     But these are the SAME buffers that were just discarded.
> 
>   4. handle_rx() hits `continue`, restarting the loop.
> 
>   5. In the next iteration, vhost_get_vq_desc_n() checks:
> 
>       if (vq->avail_idx == vq->last_avail_idx)
> 
>     This is FALSE (108 != 104), so it skips re-reading the guest's
>     actual avail->idx and directly fetches the same descriptors.
> 
>   6. The exact same sequence repeats: fetch -> too small -> discard
>     -> rollback -> "new buffers!" -> continue. Indefinitely.
> 
> This appears to be a regression introduced by the VIRTIO_F_IN_ORDER
> support, which added vhost_get_vq_desc_n() with the cached avail_idx
> short-circuit check, and the two-argument vhost_discard_vq_desc()
> with next_avail_head rollback. The mismatch between the rollback
> scope (last_avail_idx, next_avail_head) and the check scope
> (avail_idx vs last_avail_idx) was not present before this change.
> 
> bpftrace Evidence
> -----------------
> During the 100% CPU lockup, we traced:
> 
>   @get_rx_ret[0]:      4468052   // get_rx_bufs() returns 0 every time
>   @peek_ret[60366]:    4385533   // same 60KB packet seen every iteration
>   @sock_err[recvmsg]:        0   // tun_recvmsg() is never reached
> 
> vhost_get_vq_desc_n() was observed iterating over the exact same 11
> descriptor addresses millions of times per second.
> 
> Workaround
> ----------
> Either of the following avoids the livelock:
> 
>   - Disable GRO/GSO on the TAP interface:
>      ethtool -K <tap> gro off gso off
> 
>   - Switch from kernel vhost to userspace QEMU backend:
>      <driver name='qemu'/> in libvirt XML
> 
> Bisect
> ------
> We have not yet completed a full git bisect, but the issue does not
> occur on 6.17.x kernels which lack the VIRTIO_F_IN_ORDER vhost
> support. We will follow up with a Fixes: tag if we can identify the
> exact commit.
> 
> Suggested Fix Direction
> -----------------------
> In handle_rx(), when get_rx_bufs() returns 0 (headcount == 0) due to
> insufficient buffers (not because the queue is truly empty), the code
> should break out of the loop rather than relying on
> vhost_enable_notify() to make that determination. For example, when
> get_rx_bufs() returns r == 0 with datalen still > 0, this indicates a
> "packet too large" condition, not a "queue empty" condition, and
> should be handled differently.
> 
> Thanks,
> ShuangYu

Hmm. On a hunch, does the following help? completely untested,
it is night here, sorry.

diff --git a/drivers/vhost/vhost.c b/drivers/vhost/vhost.c
index 2f2c45d20883..aafae15d5156 100644
--- a/drivers/vhost/vhost.c
+++ b/drivers/vhost/vhost.c
@@ -1522,6 +1522,7 @@ static void vhost_dev_unlock_vqs(struct vhost_dev *d)
 static inline int vhost_get_avail_idx(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq)
 {
 	__virtio16 idx;
+	u16 avail_idx;
 	int r;
 
 	r = vhost_get_avail(vq, idx, &vq->avail->idx);
@@ -1532,17 +1533,19 @@ static inline int vhost_get_avail_idx(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq)
 	}
 
 	/* Check it isn't doing very strange thing with available indexes */
-	vq->avail_idx = vhost16_to_cpu(vq, idx);
-	if (unlikely((u16)(vq->avail_idx - vq->last_avail_idx) > vq->num)) {
+	avail_idx = vhost16_to_cpu(vq, idx);
+	if (unlikely((u16)(avail_idx - vq->last_avail_idx) > vq->num)) {
 		vq_err(vq, "Invalid available index change from %u to %u",
 		       vq->last_avail_idx, vq->avail_idx);
 		return -EINVAL;
 	}
 
 	/* We're done if there is nothing new */
-	if (vq->avail_idx == vq->last_avail_idx)
+	if (avail_idx == vq->avail_idx)
 		return 0;
 
+	vq->avail_idx == avail_idx;
+
 	/*
 	 * We updated vq->avail_idx so we need a memory barrier between
 	 * the index read above and the caller reading avail ring entries.