Hello Jason, +-- On Tue, 23 Feb 2016, Jason Wang wrote --+ | I mean with your patch, driver will only be allowed to set EN0_STOPPG | before EN0_STARTPG. So if a driver want to set STARTPG first, the check | | + if (v < NE2000_PMEM_END && v < s->stop) { | | will prevent the driver from working correctly since s->stop is zero here.
Before drivers could start using NIC, it'll be initialised from its ROM, right? Which would set the PSTART & PSTOP registers to the default values. With '-net nic,model=ne2k_pci,vlan=0' I see, s->start = 19456, s->stop = 32768 | > I think any attempts to define the ring buffer limits should reset | > 'boundary' and 'curpag' registers to s->start(STARTPG). I wonder if a | > driver should be allowed to fiddle with the ring buffers location inside | > contorller's memory. It does not seem right. | | Well, I think we could not assume the behavior of a driver, especially | consider it may be malicious. Yes; That's why it'll help to keep drivers from fiddling with the ring buffer dimensions. IIUC, there is an upper limit to where PSTOP could point[1], "In 8 bit mode the PSTOP register should not exceed to 0x60, in 16 bit mode the PSTOP register should not exceed to 0x80" [1] http://www.ethernut.de/pdf/8019asds.pdf Kernel drivers too seem to have it fixed -> https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/net/ethernet/8390/ne.c#n398 -> https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/net/ethernet/8390/ne2k-pci.c#n342 | > Check if (s->start == s->stop) at each receive call? | Or in ne2000_buffer_full()? ne2000_buffer_full() too assumes that 's->stop > s->start' ... avail = (s->stop - s->start) - (index - boundary); Is there a case wherein drivers need to adjust ring buffer pointers? If not, I think it's better to convert EN0_STARTPG:, EN0_STOPPG:, EN0_BOUNDARY: and EN1_CURPAG: cases into no-ops. -- - P J P 47AF CE69 3A90 54AA 9045 1053 DD13 3D32 FE5B 041F