Re: [PATCH net-next] veth: clear rx queue hint in veth_xmit

From: Björn Töpel

Date: Fri Oct 09 2026 - 02:55:20 EST


Jiayuan Chen <jiayuan.chen@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

> With more tx queues on one end of a veth pair than rx queues on the
> other, and RPS or generic XDP enabled on the receiving end, we get:
>
> veth1 received packet on queue 2, but number of RX queues is 2
> WARNING: net/core/dev.c:5212 at get_rps_cpu+0x560/0x1360
> Call Trace:
> <TASK>
> netif_rx_internal+0x1af/0x4c0
> __netif_rx+0x99/0x350
> veth_xmit+0x713/0xca0
> dev_hard_start_xmit+0x166/0x5f0
> __dev_queue_xmit+0x1797/0x42d0
> ip_finish_output2+0xa34/0x1f40
> __ip_finish_output+0x510/0x7e0
> ip_finish_output+0x2f/0x320
> ip_output+0x17a/0x3f0
> ip_send_skb+0x1bc/0x220
> ......
>
> Easy to hit with "ethtool -L veth0 tx 4", "ethtool -L veth1 rx 2",
> rps_cpus set on veth1 and a few flows sent over the pair [1].
>
> veth_xmit() uses skb->queue_mapping to pick the peer rq, but never
> clears it before veth_forward_skb(), so the rx side still sees the tx
> queue index. Everything on the rx side that goes through
> skb_get_rx_queue(), like get_rps_cpu() and netif_get_rxqueue() for
> generic XDP, takes it as a recorded rx queue and warns once it is out
> of range.
>
> Clear it before handing the skb to the peer:
>
> - It is the tx queue index of this device, it says nothing about the
> rx queue of the peer.
>
> - The two sides don't even agree on the encoding. The tx side stores
> the index as is, the rx side stores index + 1 so that 0 can mean
> "not recorded". So tx queue k is read back as rx queue k - 1, and
> tx queue 0 as "not recorded".
>
> - Commit 710ad98c363a ("veth: Do not record rx queue hint in
> veth_xmit") already decided that veth should not pass any queue
> hint to the peer. There is no tx->rx queue mapping to preserve, so
> nothing is lost by clearing it.
>
> On NETDEV_TX_BUSY the skb goes back to the qdisc, which looks up the
> txq from skb->queue_mapping to decide when to retry, so restore it
> there, next to the existing __skb_push().
>
> [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/156834bb-8e40-496e-9443-9d515fa18eab@xxxxxxxxx/
>
> Fixes: 710ad98c363a ("veth: Do not record rx queue hint in veth_xmit")
> Signed-off-by: Jiayuan Chen <jiayuan.chen@xxxxxxxxx>

...should probably still target net, and let the maintainers decide
route?

Reviewed-by: Björn Töpel <bjorn@xxxxxxxxxx>