On Mon, Sep 08, 2025 at 11:22:44AM +0200, Volker Diels-Grabsch wrote:
When restarting passt while QEMU keeps running with a configured "reconnect-ms" setting, the port forwardings will stop working until the guest sends some outgoing network traffic.
Reason: Although QEMU reconnects successfully to the unix domain socket of the new passt process, that one no longer knows the guest's MAC address and uses instead a broadcast MAC address. However, this is ignored by the guest, at least if the guest runs Linux. Only after the guest sends some network package on its own initiative, passt will know the MAC address and will be able to establish forwarded connections.
This change fixes this issue by sending an ARP request to resolve the guest's MAC address via its IP address, which we do know, right after the unix domain socket (re)connection.
The only case where the IP is "wrong" would be if the configuration changed, and/or on the very first start right after qemu started. But in those cases, we just wouldn't get an ARP response, and can't do anything until we receive the guest's DHCP request - just as before. In other words, in the worst case an ARP request would be harmless.
Signed-off-by: Volker Diels-Grabsch
Reviewed-by: David Gibson
--- arp.c | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ arp.h | 1 + tap.c | 9 ++++++--- util.h | 1 + 4 files changed, 42 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arp.c b/arp.c index 44677ad..c217356 100644 --- a/arp.c +++ b/arp.c @@ -112,3 +112,37 @@ int arp(const struct ctx *c, struct iov_tail *data)
return 1; } + +/** + * arp_send_init_req() - Send initial ARP request to retrieve guest MAC address + * @c: Execution context + */ +void arp_send_init_req(const struct ctx *c) +{ + struct { + struct ethhdr eh; + struct arphdr ah; + struct arpmsg am; + } __attribute__((__packed__)) req; + + /* Ethernet header */ + req.eh.h_proto = htons(ETH_P_ARP); + memcpy(req.eh.h_dest, MAC_BROADCAST, sizeof(req.eh.h_dest)); + memcpy(req.eh.h_source, c->our_tap_mac, sizeof(req.eh.h_source)); + + /* ARP header */ + req.ah.ar_op = htons(ARPOP_REQUEST); + req.ah.ar_hrd = htons(ARPHRD_ETHER); + req.ah.ar_pro = htons(ETH_P_IP); + req.ah.ar_hln = ETH_ALEN; + req.ah.ar_pln = 4; + + /* ARP message */ + memcpy(req.am.sha, c->our_tap_mac, sizeof(req.am.sha)); + memcpy(req.am.sip, &c->ip4.our_tap_addr, sizeof(req.am.sip)); + memcpy(req.am.tha, MAC_BROADCAST, sizeof(req.am.tha)); + memcpy(req.am.tip, &c->ip4.addr, sizeof(req.am.tip)); + + info("sending initial ARP request to retrieve guest MAC address after reconnect"); + tap_send_single(c, &req, sizeof(req)); +} diff --git a/arp.h b/arp.h index 86bcbf8..d5ad0e1 100644 --- a/arp.h +++ b/arp.h @@ -21,5 +21,6 @@ struct arpmsg { } __attribute__((__packed__));
int arp(const struct ctx *c, struct iov_tail *data); +void arp_send_init_req(const struct ctx *c);
#endif /* ARP_H */ diff --git a/tap.c b/tap.c index 7ba6399..4249353 100644 --- a/tap.c +++ b/tap.c @@ -1355,6 +1355,8 @@ static void tap_start_connection(const struct ctx *c) ev.events = EPOLLIN | EPOLLRDHUP; ev.data.u64 = ref.u64; epoll_ctl(c->epollfd, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, c->fd_tap, &ev); + + arp_send_init_req(c); }
/** @@ -1504,10 +1506,11 @@ void tap_backend_init(struct ctx *c) tap_sock_unix_init(c);
/* In passt mode, we don't know the guest's MAC address until it - * sends us packets. Use the broadcast address so that our - * first packets will reach it. + * sends us packets (e.g. responds to our initial ARP request). + * Until then, use the broadcast address so that our first + * packets will reach it. */ - memset(&c->guest_mac, 0xff, sizeof(c->guest_mac)); + memcpy(&c->guest_mac, MAC_BROADCAST, sizeof(c->guest_mac)); break; }
diff --git a/util.h b/util.h index 2a8c38f..3719f0c 100644 --- a/util.h +++ b/util.h @@ -97,6 +97,7 @@ void abort_with_msg(const char *fmt, ...) #define FD_PROTO(x, proto) \ (IN_INTERVAL(c->proto.fd_min, c->proto.fd_max, (x)))
+#define MAC_BROADCAST ((uint8_t [ETH_ALEN]){ 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff }) #define MAC_ZERO ((uint8_t [ETH_ALEN]){ 0 }) #define MAC_IS_ZERO(addr) (!memcmp((addr), MAC_ZERO, ETH_ALEN))
-- 2.47.3
-- David Gibson (he or they) | I'll have my music baroque, and my code david AT gibson.dropbear.id.au | minimalist, thank you, not the other way | around. http://www.ozlabs.org/~dgibson