[PATCH 0/2] do not disable sg when packet requires no checksum

This two-part patchset replaces an earlier net-only patch that
added an explicit check for the AoE protocol to harmonize_features
in net/core/dev.c.

Following the suggestions of Ben Hutchings, this patchset makes
the decision in the network layer protocol agnostic instead of
using ETH_P_AOE as a special case.  It relies on fresh skbs being
CHECKSUM_NONE but makes that explicit with an assertion.

Ed L. Cashin (2):
  aoe: assert AoE packets marked as requiring no checksum
  net: do not disable sg for packets requiring no checksum

 drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c |    1 +
 net/core/dev.c             |    3 ++-
 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

-- 
1.7.2.5

In order for the network layer to see that AoE requires
no checksumming in a generic way, the packets must be
marked as requiring no checksum, so we make this requirement
explicit with the assertion.

Signed-off-by: Ed Cashin <redacted>
---
 drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c |    1 +
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c b/drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c
index de0435e..887f68f 100644
--- a/drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c
+++ b/drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c

@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ new_skb(ulong len)
 		skb_reset_mac_header(skb);
 		skb_reset_network_header(skb);
 		skb->protocol = __constant_htons(ETH_P_AOE);
+		skb_checksum_none_assert(skb);
 	}
 	return skb;
 }

-- 
1.7.2.5

A change in a series of VLAN-related changes appears to have
inadvertently disabled the use of the scatter gather feature of
network cards for transmission of non-IP ethernet protocols like ATA
over Ethernet (AoE).  Below is a reference to the commit that
introduces a "harmonize_features" function that turns off scatter
gather when the NIC does not support hardware checksumming for the
ethernet protocol of an sk buff.

  commit f01a5236bd4b140198fbcc550f085e8361fd73fa
  Author: Jesse Gross [off-list ref]
  Date:   Sun Jan 9 06:23:31 2011 +0000

      net offloading: Generalize netif_get_vlan_features().

The can_checksum_protocol function is not equipped to consider a
protocol that does not require checksumming.  Calling it for a
protocol that requires no checksum is inappropriate.

The patch below has harmonize_features call can_checksum_protocol when
the protocol needs a checksum, so that the network layer is not forced
to perform unnecessary skb linearization on the transmission of AoE
packets.  Unnecessary linearization results in decreased performance
and increased memory pressure, as reported here:

  http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-mm/msg15184.html

The problem has probably not been widely experienced yet, because
only recently has the kernel.org-distributed aoe driver acquired the
ability to use payloads of over a page in size, with the patchset
recently included in the mm tree:

  https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/8/28/140

The coraid.com-distributed aoe driver already could use payloads of
greater than a page in size, but its users generally do not use the
newest kernels.

Signed-off-by: Ed Cashin <redacted>
---
 net/core/dev.c |    3 ++-
 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/core/dev.c b/net/core/dev.c
index d7fe32c..9b934d4 100644
--- a/net/core/dev.c
+++ b/net/core/dev.c

@@ -2134,7 +2134,8 @@ static bool can_checksum_protocol(netdev_features_t features, __be16 protocol)
 static netdev_features_t harmonize_features(struct sk_buff *skb,
 	__be16 protocol, netdev_features_t features)
 {
-	if (!can_checksum_protocol(features, protocol)) {
+	if (skb->ip_summed != CHECKSUM_NONE &&
+	    !can_checksum_protocol(features, protocol)) {
 		features &= ~NETIF_F_ALL_CSUM;
 		features &= ~NETIF_F_SG;
 	} else if (illegal_highdma(skb->dev, skb)) {

-- 
1.7.2.5

From: Ed Cashin <redacted>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:46:07 -0700

This two-part patchset replaces an earlier net-only patch that
added an explicit check for the AoE protocol to harmonize_features
in net/core/dev.c.

Following the suggestions of Ben Hutchings, this patchset makes
the decision in the network layer protocol agnostic instead of
using ETH_P_AOE as a special case.  It relies on fresh skbs being
CHECKSUM_NONE but makes that explicit with an assertion.

Ed L. Cashin (2):
  aoe: assert AoE packets marked as requiring no checksum
  net: do not disable sg for packets requiring no checksum

Applied and queued up for -stable, thanks Ed.