On Wed, 2017-10-11 at 11:48 -0300, rbr...@ime.usp.br wrote: > Package: src:linux > Version: 4.12.13-1 > Severity: normal > > > Hi. > > I am using an armel system with only 128MB of RAM (a KuroBox Pro) running > Debian testing and, if my memory serves me well, I started seeing lots and > lots of messages like: > > mv643xx_eth_port mv643xx_eth_port.0 eth0: failed to linearize skb with > tiny unaligned fragment > > on my dmesg after I upgraded to kernel 4.12. I don't know if this is a > serious problem or only a cosmetic issue. [...]
This message and the code that generates it have been present in the mv643xx_eth driver for a long time. The network interface hardware is generally capable of transmitting a packet that comes from multiple buffers in memory, but in some cases the driver copies all the data into a single buffer, probably to avoid a hardware bug. If there is not enough memory to make that copy then it logs this message. I think the driver should drop the packet if this happens, but instead it just reports that the hardware is busy. That will cause the kernel to try sending the packet again repeatedly, resulting in repetition of this log message until there is more memory available. If you haven't seen this error message before, it might be triggered by an application change. But I think it's more likely to be caused by higher memory usage or fragmentation of memory. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain. - Lily Tomlin
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