Re: [net-next 1/8] e1000e: Minimum packet size must be 17 bytes

On 10/23/2012 08:25 AM, David Laight wrote:

quoted

This is a HW requirement. Although a buffer as short as 1 byte is allowed,
the total length of packet before, padding and CRC insertion, must be at
least 17 bytes.  So pad all small packets manually up to 17 bytes before
delivering them to HW.

Where do such very short packets come from?
The shortest one I know of have:
 6 bytes dest-mac
 6 bytes src-mac
 2 bytes length
 3 bytes llc header (eg reflect request).
17 bytes total.

	David

This mostly has to do with security fuzz testers sending raw packets at
the interface trying to see what can cause it to hang.  As far as I know
nothing from the stack will be that small, but we still have to support
raw packets that size.

Thanks,

Alex