linux-toradex.git/Documentation/lguest, branch v2.6.27-rc4

lguest: don't set MAC address for guest unless specified

2008-08-12T07:52:52+00:00

This shows up when trying to bridge:
	tap0: received packet with  own address as source address

As Max Krasnyansky points out, there's no reason to give the guest the
same mac address as the TUN device.

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell 
Cc: Max Krasnyansky

lguest: turn Waker into a thread, not a process

2008-07-28T23:58:39+00:00

lguest uses a Waker process to break it out of the kernel (ie.
actually running the guest) when file descriptor needs attention.

Changing this from a process to a thread somewhat simplifies things:
it can directly access the fd_set of things to watch.  More
importantly, it means that the Waker can see Guest memory correctly,
so /dev/vring file descriptors will work as anticipated (the
alternative is to actually mmap MAP_SHARED, but you can't do that with
/dev/zero).

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell

lguest: Enlarge virtio rings

2008-07-28T23:58:38+00:00

With big packets, 128 entries is a little small.

Guest -> Host 1GB TCP:
Before: 8.43625 seconds xmit 95640 recv 198266 timeout 49771 usec 1252
After: 8.01099 seconds xmit 49200 recv 102263 timeout 26014 usec 2118

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell

lguest: Use GSO/IFF_VNET_HDR extensions on tun/tap

2008-07-28T23:58:37+00:00

Guest -> Host 1GB TCP:
Before 20.1974 seconds xmit 214510 recv 5 timeout 214491 usec 278
After 8.43625 seconds xmit 95640 recv 198266 timeout 49771 usec 1252

Host -> Guest 1GB TCP:
Before: Seconds 9.98854 xmit 172166 recv 5344 timeout 172157 usec 251
After: Seconds 5.72803 xmit 244322 recv 9919 timeout 244302 usec 156

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell

lguest: Remove 'network: no dma buffer!' warning

2008-07-28T23:58:37+00:00

This warning can happen a lot under load, and it should be warnx not
warn anwyay.

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell

lguest: Adaptive timeout

2008-07-28T23:58:36+00:00

Since the correct timeout value varies, use a heuristic which adjusts
the timeout depending on how many packets we've seen.  This gives
slightly worse results, but doesn't need tweaking when GSO is
introduced.

500 usec	19.1887		xmit 561141 recv 1 timeout 559657
Dynamic (278)	20.1974		xmit 214510 recv 5 timeout 214491 usec 278

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell

lguest: Tell Guest net not to notify us on every packet xmit

2008-07-28T23:58:36+00:00

virtio_ring has the ability to suppress notifications.  This prevents
a guest exit for every packet, but we need to set a timer on packet
receipt to re-check if there were any remaining packets.

Here are the times for 1G TCP Guest->Host with different timeout
settings (it matters because the TCP window doesn't grow big enough to
fill the entire buffer):

Timeout value	Seconds		Xmit/Recv/Timeout
None (before)	25.3784		xmit 7750233 recv 1
2500 usec	62.5119		xmit 207020 recv 2 timeout 207020
1000 usec	34.5379		xmit 207003 recv 2 timeout 207003
750 usec	29.2305		xmit 207002 recv 1 timeout 207002
500 usec	19.1887		xmit 561141 recv 1 timeout 559657
250 usec	20.0465		xmit 214128 recv 2 timeout 214110
100 usec	19.2583		xmit 561621 recv 1 timeout 560153

(Note that these values are sensitive to the GSO patches which come
 later, and probably other traffic-related variables, so take with a
 large grain of salt).

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell

lguest: net block unneeded receive queue update notifications

2008-07-28T23:58:35+00:00

Number of exits transmitting 10GB Guest->Host before:
	network xmit 7858610 recv 118136

After:
	network xmit 7750233 recv 1

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell

lguest: wrap last_avail accesses.

2008-07-28T23:58:35+00:00

To simplify the transition to when we publish indices in the ring
(and make shuffling my patch queue easier), wrap them in a lg_last_avail()
macro.

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell

lguest: virtio-rng support

2008-07-28T23:58:34+00:00

This is a simple patch to add support for the virtio "hardware random
generator" to lguest.  It gets about 1.2 MB/sec reading from /dev/hwrng
in the guest.

Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell