Re: [PATCH 5/5] net: macb: Fix race between HW and driver

From: Soren Brinkmann <redacted>
Date: Sun,  4 May 2014 15:43:02 -0700

Under "heavy" RX load, the driver cannot handle the descriptors fast
enough. In detail, when a descriptor is consumed, its used flag is
cleared and once the RX budget is consumed all descriptors with a
cleared used flag are prepared to receive more data. Under load though,
the HW may constantly receive more data and use those descriptors with a
cleared used flag before they are actually prepared for next usage.

The head and tail pointers into the RX-ring should always be valid and
we can omit clearing and checking of the used flag.

Signed-off-by: Soren Brinkmann <redacted>

Isn't the RX_USED bit the only thing that controls what RX entries
the chip will try to use?

I can't see how you can just remove the RX_USED bit handling
altogether.

The problem actually seems to be that in the current code we clear the
RX_USED bit before we actually reallocate the buffer and set it up.

It should be a bug to see the RX_USED bit set in gem_rx_refill(), and
the only reason why it can happen is exactly because you're clearing it
too early in gem_rx().

This change doesn't seem to be correct, I'm not applying this series
sorry.