Author: Tom Barbette

Deadline extended to Thursday 13:59

Please take this time to write tests and merge them using the git at https://gitlab.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/INFO0940/project4scripts

Please already try to submit now with a barely working sys_pfstat allowing obvious error to be catched as early as possible.

First, you probably noted that it’s mostly a bonus, start the mode 3 code when everything else is finished.

We already saw in the first slides how the rx_rings of the e1000 NIC work. Normally you also now the main receive function : e1000_clean_rx_irq.

There is one struct e1000_rx_ring per hardware RX ring. Normaly, there is only one ring (and you should only care about one for step 7).

I think the fields are pretty well defined (for once…) :

 struct e1000_rx_ring {
         /* pointer to the descriptor ring memory */
         void *desc;
         /* physical address of the descriptor ring */
         dma_addr_t dma;
         /* length of descriptor ring in bytes */
         unsigned int size;
         /* number of descriptors in the ring */
         unsigned int count;
         /* next descriptor to associate a buffer with */
         unsigned int next_to_use;
         /* next descriptor to check for DD status bit */
         unsigned int next_to_clean;
         /* array of buffer information structs */
         struct e1000_rx_buffer *buffer_info;
         struct sk_buff *rx_skb_top;
 
         /* cpu for rx queue */
         int cpu;
 
         u16 rdh;
         u16 rdt;
 };

The desc is a pointer to the memory zone, containing the ring. This memory zone is accessible by the NIC itself through the dma address. The ring is a contiguous zone of e1000_rx_desc structures. Usually you access it with

E1000_RX_DESC(R, i)

where R is the ring pointer and i the index of the descriptor.

One descriptor i composed of :

 struct e1000_rx_desc {
         __le64 buffer_addr;     /* Address of the descriptor's data buffer */
         __le16 length;          /* Length of data DMAed into data buffer */
         __le16 csum;            /* Packet checksum */
         u8 status;              /* Descriptor status */
         u8 errors;              /* Descriptor Errors */
         __le16 special;
 };

The buffer_addr variable is a pointer to the physical memory address where a packet can be received. The problem is that the Kernel normal put hte address of a skbuff->data there. But when a packet is received and its content is copied inside that buffer, how to get back the corresponding skbuff? This is why the e1000_rx_ring structure has also a buffer_info pointer. There is exactly as many buffer_info than e1000_rx_desc.  The buffer info contains all the software-only information that we need to keep about each descriptors, such as the skbuff which will receive the data pointed by buffer_addr.

Before receiving any packets, all buffer_addr have to be setted ! Or the NIC wouldn’t know where to put the data. This is done in e1000_configure :

         for (i = 0; i < adapter->num_rx_queues; i++) {
                 struct e1000_rx_ring *ring = &adapter->rx_ring[i];
                 adapter->alloc_rx_buf(adapter, ring,
                                       E1000_DESC_UNUSED(ring));
         }

alloc_rx_buf is a pointer to the function e1000_alloc_rx_buffers (if you don’t use jumbo frame, and you shouldn’t here).  We see that this functions is called for all rx rings.

The function e1000_alloc_rx_buffers is defined at line 4561.  It calls “e1000_alloc_frag” for each buffers between rx_ring->next_to_use (initialized to 0) up to cleaned_count (in configure, the size of the ring is passed, so this is equivalent to a full reset).

The memory obtained from e1000_alloc_frag is (probably) not accessible by hardware, so we have to map “DMA map” it :

                 buffer_info->dma = dma_map_single(&pdev->dev,
                                                   data,
                                                   adapter->rx_buffer_len,
                                                   DMA_FROM_DEVICE);

You will have to do this with your fastnet buffers !

Then the result in dma is putted inside buffer_addr (line 4650).

When some packet are received, e1000_clean_rx_irq will make skbuff out of them, and we’ll need to allocate new buffers and put pointers to them inside the ring so next packet can be received. This is done at the end of e1000_clean_rx_irq :

         cleaned_count = E1000_DESC_UNUSED(rx_ring);
         if (cleaned_count)
                 adapter->alloc_rx_buf(adapter, rx_ring, cleaned_count);

So when the device goes in mode 3 you have to :

• Change the adapter->alloc_rx_buf function per your new one which will set buffer_addr to dma mapped fastnet buffers.
• Do a full pass of a new alloc_rx_buf to replace all current skb buffers by fastnet buffers so all new packets will be received directly in the fastnet zone.

When a packet is received :

• In fastnet mode 3, do not call any skb related function in clean_rx_irq : from line 4385 to 4401 which creates the skb, line 4424, line 4438, and 4453 to 4463.
• Instead of line 4464 calling the kernel receive path, do the copy of the packet length to the fastnet buffer descriptor. Note that as for skb in buffer_info, you will need to keep a pointer to the related fastnet descriptor. There is no need to call the kernel receive path anymore : the whole purpose of mode 3 is to directly receive the packet in userspace. Just set the length so the user knows there is a packet available inside the corresponding buffer !

What I want with a “generic way” is that the least possible code has to be written inside e1000, so do not implement any fastnet descriptor related code in e1000 : create a function in fastnet.c to get the next fastnet buffer that you will map, and use net_dev_ops or adapter-> functions so that fastnet ioctl can call a generic function like dev->ops->set_in_fastnet_zc_mode that any driver may or may not implement.

The code source I presented is available at :

http://gitlab.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/INFO0940/rcvtest

I’m willing to merge any pull request (called merge request on gitlab, so that they don’t copy github too much^^). Especially for parsing arguments, having options like “-b” to set the buffer size instead of recompiling, …

Since the presentation I added a “do_something” function called for each received packets of each methods, it will simply read bytes 12 and 13 of the ethernet header and check if it’s an IP packet, and sum up the amount of IP packets. As I said in class, this allows to effectively read the content of the packet and is a much better benchmarking, as nobody receive raw packets in userspace to do nothing with them… So you will hit memory for each packets. For nearly all method you just memcopied the content to userspace, but in mode 3 the NIC writes directly the packet to the buffer so when you’ll access the content you’ll loose ~300cpu cycles just to wait for the packet content to be bringed to cache, so it would be unfair to just get the packet length and not the data.

I also added a “socket” method, using the standard Linux socket which works like the fastnet read function. As you’ll probably find out, PCAP has already a big advantage using a special feature of the Kernel to receive much like what we do in Fastnet Step 7 : packet_mmap. I imagine you’ll be happy to see that you, humble student, can already do better than packet_mmap which is the best that Linux can offer to receive raw packets. Those doing the implementation for mode 3 will be able to see how much faster we can go.

If people are interested to change the mode 3 to make it work with packet_mmap and try to submit a patch to the linux networking team, they can contact me and we’ll do it together. It’s time to make Linux move regarding fast packet capture and if our patch is not accepted, it will at least piss of some people and make linux move in the right direction… I know you have a “personal project” course in master 1 that can surely credit this task.

Some of the commands I use in class :

sudo ip link add veth0 type veth peer name veth1

sudo ifconfig eth2 up

sudo tcpreplay -l 0 -q -i vboxnet0 –preload packet

sudo tcpreplay -l 0 –mbps=100.0 -q -i vboxnet0 –preload packet

The 64byte UDP packet I made is available at https://www.tombarbette.be/packet

If you use a bridge, update the packet to set its source and destination mac address to the mac address of the bridge on your host and the mac address of the ethernet port on your virtual machine.

The Step 7 will be easier if you go back to mode 0 when the file descriptor is closed. It can happen if the user call close(fd) , or it will be automatically done when application exits.  So there won’t be a device in fastnet mode anymore without an open file descriptor. It also means that module_exit has nothing to do on exit : if you putted .owner = THIS_MODULE correctly, it won’t be closed until there is still open file descriptors, so when the module is removed you know that there is no device in fastnet mode.

This seems more like a file should be handled, but mimics less the syscall, as there is nothing “opened” after a syscall, there is no state, no “session” and therefore no “close”.

This also avoid the need to have a list of devices currently in fastnet mode, which makes it easier. A lot of groups did use the first_net_device facility but that won’t go over a device currently being removed but blocked by the dev_hold/dev_put reference. So the exit function was a little messy, this should make it easier… Multiple groups also called their “free_list_in_buffer” function on all devices given by first_net_device. If the rx_handler (and therefore the rx_handler_data) wasn’t yours, you’ll follow an unknown pointer and free things randomly… Bad ! In the close function, you know it’s your device, you know its current mode, so it’s easy. The specification that there is only one file descriptor per device, and one device per file description is still true, so the close function is pretty straight forward.

The assignment has been updated accordingly.

I updated the Step #6 with more specifications as I received quite a lot of questions. Mostly :

• The buffers are indeed per-device, so if we have two open()+ioctl()+read() sequences about two different device, each read() will give packets from the device previously set by the ioctl() but not randomly from any of the devices.
• I add the “user” constraint that only ioctl about the same devices can be given to one file descriptor. Each open operation create one new and independent file descriptor. You can think as /dev/fastnet as an “entry point”, but each open() give in fact a very different file, where the content of read() will depend on the previous ioctls.

You can use the private_data structure of the file* filp to remember things like the device passed to the ioctl in the read.

If you have already gone in a too different direction because you misunderstood something (or I wasn’t clear enough…) and don’t want to go back, contact me.

Yes, it’s not in my corrected code on gitlab, but well, do what I say, not what I do.

– Modifying netdevice.h will force to rebuild and reinstall all modules that include it. If you don’t you’ll have errors on boot/when loading module for the old header.
– The pointer + private pointer is method is found in a lot of place in the kernel. Usually, you want to do some stuffs (a function) when something is done. That is called a callback. But usually you need some information, some context with this. When you ask de disk for some data, and you finally get back the block (after an IRQ), having just the block you asked is not enough… You’ll need to remember what you wanted to do with that block. You’ll find “private” structure in a lot of places. But pay attention : is it private for you, or private for someone else? In the case of the rxhandler, it’s pretty obvious as rx_handler_data (the private pointer) is set via register_handler : the owner is the one using rxhandler_register_data. But you also have a private space in netdevice for example (accessed through netdev_priv). For who it is private? Its intended user is the device owner, so the driver. If you modify it, you will corrupt the driver… So if you want to retain some per-device data but you’re not the creator of this net_device struct, this is absolutely not the way to go…
– If you add a variable, you have to initialize it, and add again some code.

I didn’t formalize about it in step 4 and 5, because I didn’t tried it… And because the kernel developers are really bastards some time (http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/include/linux/netdevice.h?v=4.1#L1428 seriously? It would be faster to describe it than writing that…).

For Step 6, it’s more arguable if you need to add a fastnet field or not, as you also access a buffer of skbuff from the file operations. I didn’t specify what to do when the ioctl is called to go back to 0, but there is still packets to read… What should not happen is to leak the memory.

Note the __rcu macro before rx_handler_private definition in net_device.c… Some of you forgot to use rcu-specific accessors for dereferencing. I didn’t penalized either the usage of rcu or not, but for step 6, if you use a rcu pointer, you’ll have to do it right. Note that you shouldn’t play with RCU in your fastnet syscall/ioctl as netdev_rx_handler_register do it for you. Same for netdev_rx_handler_unregister. What you need to do is to use rcu_dereference in your rx_handler code to access the private data.

So next time, use RCU correctly, and try to use diverses private data when you register things. File also have some space for their backing file_operations 😉