[openib-general] Dropping NETIF_F_SG since no checksum feature.

Michael S. Tsirkin mst at mellanox.co.il
Mon Oct 9 10:47:05 PDT 2006


Hi!
I'm trying to build a network device driver supporting a very large MTU (around 64K)
on top of an infiniband connection, and I've hit a couple of issues I'd
appreciate some feedback on:

1. On the send side,
   I've set NETIF_F_SG, but hardware does not support checksum offloading,
   and I see "dropping NETIF_F_SG since no checksum feature" warning,
   and I seem to be getting large packets all in one chunk.
   The reason I've set NETIF_F_SG, is because I'm concerned that under real life
   stress Linux won't be able to allocate 64K of continuous memory.

   Is this concern of mine valid? I saw in-tree drivers allocating at least 8K.
   What's the best way to enable S/G on send side?
   Is checksum offloading really required for S/G?

2. On the receive side, what's the best/right way to create an skb that
   is larger than PAGE_SIZE?
   Do I allocate with alloc_page and fill in nr_frags with skb_fill_page_desc?
   Some drivers seem to fill in frag_list - which is better?
   I see than even skb_put only works properly on linear skb.
   What are the helpers legal for fragmented skb?

Suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

-- 
MST




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