Re: [PATCH v2 1/2] vhost_user: Offer VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM

Hi Stefano, could you apply this one too? Thanks, Laurent On 4/16/26 18:21, Laurent Vivier wrote:

According to the virtio-net specification, when the VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM is negotiated, the device can set VIRTIO_NET_HDR_F_DATA_VALID in the virtio-net header to indicate that packet checksums have been validated, allowing the guest to skip verification. Without this feature, the device must provide fully checksummed packets.

The vhost-user TCP and UDP paths were unconditionally skipping checksum computation, regardless of whether GUEST_CSUM was negotiated. This went undetected with Linux guests because Linux's virtio-net driver honours VIRTIO_NET_HDR_F_DATA_VALID regardless of whether VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM was negotiated, marking such packets as CHECKSUM_UNNECESSARY and skipping verification.

iPXE, however, does not negotiate GUEST_CSUM, ignores the DATA_VALID flag entirely, and always verifies checksums. This caused TCP connections to fail: the SYN-ACK had a zero TCP checksum, iPXE rejected it, and the connection timed out in SYN_RCVD.

Adding --pcap happened to mask the bug, because the pcap code path forces checksum computation to ensure correct captures.

Offer VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM in the device features, and only skip checksum computation when the guest has actually negotiated it. When GUEST_CSUM is not negotiated, always compute valid checksums as required by the specification.

We keep setting VIRTIO_NET_HDR_F_DATA_VALID unconditionally in VU_HEADER: when GUEST_CSUM is negotiated, the flag lets the guest skip checksum verification; when it is not, the spec says the guest should ignore the flags field, so setting it is harmless.

Signed-off-by: Laurent Vivier Reviewed-by: David Gibson --- tcp_vu.c | 8 ++++++-- udp_vu.c | 7 ++++--- vhost_user.c | 1 + 3 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tcp_vu.c b/tcp_vu.c index 7f7e43860b10..3da14a4942d6 100644 --- a/tcp_vu.c +++ b/tcp_vu.c @@ -124,6 +124,7 @@ int tcp_vu_send_flag(const struct ctx *c, struct tcp_tap_conn *conn, int flags) struct vu_virtq *vq = &vdev->vq[VHOST_USER_RX_QUEUE]; size_t optlen, hdrlen, iov_cnt, iov_used; struct vu_virtq_element flags_elem[2]; + uint32_t csum_flags = IP4_CSUM; struct iovec flags_iov[64]; int elem_cnt, dup_elem_cnt = 0; struct tcp_syn_opts opts; @@ -135,6 +136,9 @@ int tcp_vu_send_flag(const struct ctx *c, struct tcp_tap_conn *conn, int flags) uint32_t seq; int ret;

+ if (*c->pcap || !vu_has_feature(vdev, VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM)) + csum_flags |= TCP_CSUM; + hdrlen = tcp_vu_hdrlen(CONN_V6(conn));

elem_cnt = vu_collect(vdev, vq, &flags_elem[0], 1, @@ -173,7 +177,7 @@ int tcp_vu_send_flag(const struct ctx *c, struct tcp_tap_conn *conn, int flags) iov_from_buf(payload.iov, payload.cnt, payload.off, &opts, optlen); tcp_fill_headers(c, conn, &eh, CONN_V4(conn) ? &ip4h : NULL, CONN_V6(conn) ? &ip6h : NULL, &th, &payload, - optlen, IP4_CSUM | (*c->pcap ? TCP_CSUM : 0), seq); + optlen, csum_flags, seq);

vu_pad(flags_elem[0].in_sg, iov_cnt, hdrlen + optlen);

@@ -519,7 +523,7 @@ int tcp_vu_data_from_sock(const struct ctx *c, struct tcp_tap_conn *conn)

hdrlen = tcp_vu_hdrlen(v6); check = IP4_CSUM; - if (*c->pcap) + if (*c->pcap || !vu_has_feature(vdev, VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM)) check |= TCP_CSUM; for (i = 0, previous_dlen = -1; i < frame_cnt; i++) { struct iovec *iov = &iov_vu[frame[i].idx_iovec]; diff --git a/udp_vu.c b/udp_vu.c index 8cf50ca1c38f..54d824b5530c 100644 --- a/udp_vu.c +++ b/udp_vu.c @@ -233,12 +233,13 @@ void udp_vu_sock_to_tap(const struct ctx *c, int s, int n, flow_sidx_t tosidx) if (iov_cnt > 0) { struct iov_tail data = IOV_TAIL(iov_vu, iov_cnt, VNET_HLEN); udp_vu_prepare(c, &data, toside, dlen); - if (*c->pcap) { + if (!vu_has_feature(vdev, VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM) || + *c->pcap) udp_vu_csum(toside, &data, dlen); + vu_pad(iov_vu, iov_cnt, hdrlen + dlen); + if (*c->pcap) pcap_iov(iov_vu, iov_cnt, VNET_HLEN, hdrlen + dlen - VNET_HLEN); - } - vu_pad(iov_vu, iov_cnt, hdrlen + dlen); vu_flush(vdev, vq, elem, elem_used, hdrlen + dlen); vu_queue_notify(vdev, vq); } diff --git a/vhost_user.c b/vhost_user.c index f062badd3311..a1259c2624c0 100644 --- a/vhost_user.c +++ b/vhost_user.c @@ -322,6 +322,7 @@ static bool vu_get_features_exec(struct vu_dev *vdev, { uint64_t features = 1ULL << VIRTIO_F_VERSION_1 | + 1ULL << VIRTIO_NET_F_GUEST_CSUM | 1ULL << VIRTIO_NET_F_MRG_RXBUF | 1ULL << VHOST_F_LOG_ALL | 1ULL << VHOST_USER_F_PROTOCOL_FEATURES;