netdev - Re: [PATCH] virtio_net: set default mtu to 1500 when 'Device maximum MTU' bigger than 1500

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Date: Mon, 8 May 2023 14:10:07 -0400
From: "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com>
To: Stephen Hemminger <stephen@...workplumber.org>
Cc: Xuan Zhuo <xuanzhuo@...ux.alibaba.com>, huangml@...ur.tech,
	zy@...ur.tech, Jason Wang <jasowang@...hat.com>,
	"David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>,
	Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>,
	"open list:VIRTIO CORE AND NET DRIVERS" <virtualization@...ts.linux-foundation.org>,
	"open list:NETWORKING DRIVERS" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
	open list <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Hao Chen <chenh@...ur.tech>, hengqi@...ux.alibaba.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH] virtio_net: set default mtu to 1500 when 'Device maximum
 MTU' bigger than 1500

On Mon, May 08, 2023 at 09:25:48AM -0700, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> On Mon, 8 May 2023 06:30:07 -0400
> "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com> wrote:
> 
> > > > > I don't know, in any scenario, when the hardware supports a large mtu, but we do
> > > > > not want the user to use it by default.  
> > > >
> > > > When other devices on the same LAN have mtu set to 1500 and
> > > > won't accept bigger packets.  
> > > 
> > > So, that depends on pmtu/tcp-probe-mtu.
> > > 
> > > If the os without pmtu/tcp-probe-mtu has a bigger mtu, then it's big packet
> > > will lost.
> > > 
> > > Thanks.
> > >   
> > 
> > pmtu is designed for routing. LAN is supposed to be configured with
> > a consistent MTU.
> 
> Virtio is often used with bridging or macvlan which can't support PMTU.
> PMTU only works when forwarding at layer 3 (ie routing) where there is
> a IP address to send the ICMP response. If doing L2 forwarding, the
> only thin the bridge can do is drop the packet.
> 
> TCP cab recover but detecting an MTU blackhole requires retransmissions.

Exactly. That's why we basically use the MTU advice supplied by device
by default - it's designed for use-cases of software devices where
the device might have more information about the MTU than the guest.
If hardware devices want e.g. a way to communicate support for
jumbo frames without communicating any information about the LAN,
a new feature will be needed.

-- 
MST