From: bugzilla@dpdk.org
To: dev@dpdk.org
Subject: [DPDK/ethdev Bug 1888] dpaa/dpaa2: permanent tx errors cause caller to retry packets forever
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2026 01:33:58 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <bug-1888-3@http.bugs.dpdk.org/> (raw)
http://bugs.dpdk.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1888
Bug ID: 1888
Summary: dpaa/dpaa2: permanent tx errors cause caller to retry
packets forever
Product: DPDK
Version: 25.11
Hardware: All
OS: All
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: minor
Priority: Normal
Component: ethdev
Assignee: dev@dpdk.org
Reporter: stephen@networkplumber.org
Target Milestone: ---
Both dpaa and dpaa2 transmit paths stop processing on any error and return
a short count without freeing the failing packet. For permanent errors
(unsupported segment count, missing buffer pool), this leaves the bad packet
as the first unconsumed entry and the caller retries it indefinitely.
## Affected functions
- `dpaa_eth_queue_tx()` in `drivers/net/dpaa/dpaa_rxtx.c`
- `dpaa2_dev_tx()` in `drivers/net/dpaa2/dpaa2_rxtx.c`
- `dpaa2_dev_tx_ordered()` in `drivers/net/dpaa2/dpaa2_rxtx.c`
## Description
All three functions prepare frame descriptors in a loop. When an error
occurs at position N, they jump to a `send_pkts` / `send_n_return` label
that enqueues packets 0 through N-1 and returns. The packet at position N
is neither enqueued nor freed — it is returned to the caller as the first
unconsumed packet.
For transient errors (allocation failure, HW backpressure) this is
tolerable since the caller can retry and succeed later. For permanent
errors the packet can never succeed and callers that re-submit unconsumed
packets spin forever:
```c
while (nb_pkts) {
n = rte_eth_tx_burst(port, txq, mbufs, nb_pkts);
mbufs += n;
nb_pkts -= n;
}
```
Permanent error conditions include:
- **dpaa**: `nb_segs > DPAA_SGT_MAX_ENTRIES` in `tx_on_dpaa_pool()`
- **dpaa2**: `nb_segs > 1` for non-hw-offload buffer pool
- **dpaa2**: no buffer pool attached (`!mp || !priv->bp_list`)
## Expected behavior
Per the rte_eth_tx_burst() contract, the driver should consume erroneous
packets (free the mbuf), count them in `tx_errors`, and continue processing
the remaining burst — not stop at the first error.
## Note
The dpaa2 `sw_td` (software tail drop) path handles this correctly: it
frees all remaining packets and returns the full count. The same approach
should be applied to permanent errors in the normal transmit paths.
## Version
Found by code inspection against DPDK v25.03-rc1.
--
You are receiving this mail because:
You are the assignee for the bug.
reply other threads:[~2026-02-19 1:34 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: [no followups] expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=bug-1888-3@http.bugs.dpdk.org/ \
--to=bugzilla@dpdk.org \
--cc=dev@dpdk.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox