Network stack status & bugs?

Network stack status & bugs?

[Faidon Liambotis]

Hi all,

Around a year ago, in my attempts to use GRUB for PXE, I ran into quite
a few bugs with GRUB's TCP, DNS and HTTP stack that prevented me from
using GRUB for that purpose.

I tried my best to troubleshoot them and provide ways to reproduce them.
I posted my findings in Savannah:
  - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56391 TCP FSM bug(s)
  - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56390 Non-dual-stack aware DNS
  - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?49531 HTTP Connection: close

I haven't seen any activity in these for over a year, but that does not
seem to be unusual for bugs reported to Savannah in general(?).

However, from what I can tell, this mailing list seems to be getting a
lot of activity and lots of progress being made (including recent e.g.
the recent UEFI IPv6 improvements, yay!). So, I'm giving this a go
instead in the hopes to surface those to the attention of more
knowledgeable folks :)

Thanks!
Faidon

Re: Network stack status & bugs?

[Daniel Kiper]

Hi Faidon,

First of all, sorry for late reply...

On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 12:51:29PM +0300, Faidon Liambotis wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Around a year ago, in my attempts to use GRUB for PXE, I ran into quite
> a few bugs with GRUB's TCP, DNS and HTTP stack that prevented me from
> using GRUB for that purpose.
>
> I tried my best to troubleshoot them and provide ways to reproduce them.
> I posted my findings in Savannah:
>   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56391 TCP FSM bug(s)
>   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56390 Non-dual-stack aware DNS
>   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?49531 HTTP Connection: close
>
> I haven't seen any activity in these for over a year, but that does not
> seem to be unusual for bugs reported to Savannah in general(?).
>
> However, from what I can tell, this mailing list seems to be getting a
> lot of activity and lots of progress being made (including recent e.g.
> the recent UEFI IPv6 improvements, yay!). So, I'm giving this a go
> instead in the hopes to surface those to the attention of more
> knowledgeable folks :)

May I ask you to retest the latest upstream version from git master? I think
we should fix at least some of theses issues for upcoming 2.06 release.

Daniel

Re: Network stack status & bugs?

[Faidon Liambotis]

Hi Daniel,

On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 10:17:06PM +0100, Daniel Kiper wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 12:51:29PM +0300, Faidon Liambotis wrote:
> > Around a year ago, in my attempts to use GRUB for PXE, I ran into quite
> > a few bugs with GRUB's TCP, DNS and HTTP stack that prevented me from
> > using GRUB for that purpose.
> >
> > I tried my best to troubleshoot them and provide ways to reproduce them.
> > I posted my findings in Savannah:
> >   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56391 TCP FSM bug(s)
> >   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56390 Non-dual-stack aware DNS
> >   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?49531 HTTP Connection: close
> >
> > I haven't seen any activity in these for over a year, but that does not
> > seem to be unusual for bugs reported to Savannah in general(?).
> >
> > However, from what I can tell, this mailing list seems to be getting a
> > lot of activity and lots of progress being made (including recent e.g.
> > the recent UEFI IPv6 improvements, yay!). So, I'm giving this a go
> > instead in the hopes to surface those to the attention of more
> > knowledgeable folks :)
> 
> May I ask you to retest the latest upstream version from git master? I think
> we should fix at least some of theses issues for upcoming 2.06 release.

I can confirm that all three of those bugs are still present in current
tip (2df291226). Happy to help test any patches!

Regards,
Faidon

Re: Network stack status & bugs?

[Faidon Liambotis]

Hey Daniel & team,

On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 03:34:20AM +0200, Faidon Liambotis wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 10:17:06PM +0100, Daniel Kiper wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 12:51:29PM +0300, Faidon Liambotis wrote:
> > > Around a year ago, in my attempts to use GRUB for PXE, I ran into quite
> > > a few bugs with GRUB's TCP, DNS and HTTP stack that prevented me from
> > > using GRUB for that purpose.
> > >
> > > I tried my best to troubleshoot them and provide ways to reproduce them.
> > > I posted my findings in Savannah:
> > >   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56391 TCP FSM bug(s)
> > >   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56390 Non-dual-stack aware DNS
> > >   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?49531 HTTP Connection: close
> > >
> > > I haven't seen any activity in these for over a year, but that does not
> > > seem to be unusual for bugs reported to Savannah in general(?).
> > >
> > > However, from what I can tell, this mailing list seems to be getting a
> > > lot of activity and lots of progress being made (including recent e.g.
> > > the recent UEFI IPv6 improvements, yay!). So, I'm giving this a go
> > > instead in the hopes to surface those to the attention of more
> > > knowledgeable folks :)
> > 
> > May I ask you to retest the latest upstream version from git master? I think
> > we should fix at least some of theses issues for upcoming 2.06 release.
> 
> I can confirm that all three of those bugs are still present in current
> tip (2df291226). Happy to help test any patches!

Bumping this wondering if there are any news or plans at this point :) I
watched Michał Żygowski's presentation last week at the GRUB mini-summit
with interest, and noticed your comments there as well -- possibly
referring to some of these bugs above?

Best,
Faidon

Re: Network stack status & bugs?

[Daniel Kiper]

Hey Faidon,

On Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 11:04:37PM +0200, Faidon Liambotis wrote:
> Hey Daniel & team,
>
> On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 03:34:20AM +0200, Faidon Liambotis wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 10:17:06PM +0100, Daniel Kiper wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 12:51:29PM +0300, Faidon Liambotis wrote:
> > > > Around a year ago, in my attempts to use GRUB for PXE, I ran into quite
> > > > a few bugs with GRUB's TCP, DNS and HTTP stack that prevented me from
> > > > using GRUB for that purpose.
> > > >
> > > > I tried my best to troubleshoot them and provide ways to reproduce them.
> > > > I posted my findings in Savannah:
> > > >   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56391 TCP FSM bug(s)
> > > >   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?56390 Non-dual-stack aware DNS
> > > >   - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?49531 HTTP Connection: close
> > > >
> > > > I haven't seen any activity in these for over a year, but that does not
> > > > seem to be unusual for bugs reported to Savannah in general(?).
> > > >
> > > > However, from what I can tell, this mailing list seems to be getting a
> > > > lot of activity and lots of progress being made (including recent e.g.
> > > > the recent UEFI IPv6 improvements, yay!). So, I'm giving this a go
> > > > instead in the hopes to surface those to the attention of more
> > > > knowledgeable folks :)
> > >
> > > May I ask you to retest the latest upstream version from git master? I think
> > > we should fix at least some of theses issues for upcoming 2.06 release.
> >
> > I can confirm that all three of those bugs are still present in current
> > tip (2df291226). Happy to help test any patches!
>
> Bumping this wondering if there are any news or plans at this point :) I
> watched Michał Żygowski's presentation last week at the GRUB mini-summit
> with interest, and noticed your comments there as well -- possibly
> referring to some of these bugs above?

Yeah, I was going to reply to your email a few days ago but simply
forgot about it. Sorry about that. Anyway, we glanced through the bugs
and all of them require too much changes to be done before 2.06 release
(we are at freeze right now). However, I hope that we will be able to
fix at least some of them after the release. If you know somebody who
may help with this work that would be perfect.

Daniel