diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_ethtool.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_ethtool.c
index 04f15092ae317122590963b3ed5589eecd7b6ae2..51a1695a75ee3ad9935872785df1cc718c4f0c56 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_ethtool.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_ethtool.c
@@ -1868,7 +1868,7 @@ static u16 ixgbe_clean_test_rings(struct ixgbe_ring *rx_ring,
 	tx_ntc = tx_ring->next_to_clean;
 	rx_desc = IXGBE_RX_DESC(rx_ring, rx_ntc);
 
-	while (ixgbe_test_staterr(rx_desc, IXGBE_RXD_STAT_DD)) {
+	while (rx_desc->wb.upper.length) {
 		/* check Rx buffer */
 		rx_buffer = &rx_ring->rx_buffer_info[rx_ntc];
 
diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_main.c
index 415e5ad1485a833e675e5a33a805e4af47fee73b..6fc26cdacba2557646dfc0d0a3e74bcf5758944b 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_main.c
@@ -1640,8 +1640,8 @@ void ixgbe_alloc_rx_buffers(struct ixgbe_ring *rx_ring, u16 cleaned_count)
 			i -= rx_ring->count;
 		}
 
-		/* clear the status bits for the next_to_use descriptor */
-		rx_desc->wb.upper.status_error = 0;
+		/* clear the length for the next_to_use descriptor */
+		rx_desc->wb.upper.length = 0;
 
 		cleaned_count--;
 	} while (cleaned_count);
@@ -2154,7 +2154,7 @@ static int ixgbe_clean_rx_irq(struct ixgbe_q_vector *q_vector,
 
 		rx_desc = IXGBE_RX_DESC(rx_ring, rx_ring->next_to_clean);
 
-		if (!rx_desc->wb.upper.status_error)
+		if (!rx_desc->wb.upper.length)
 			break;
 
 		/* This memory barrier is needed to keep us from reading
@@ -3698,6 +3698,7 @@ void ixgbe_configure_rx_ring(struct ixgbe_adapter *adapter,
 			     struct ixgbe_ring *ring)
 {
 	struct ixgbe_hw *hw = &adapter->hw;
+	union ixgbe_adv_rx_desc *rx_desc;
 	u64 rdba = ring->dma;
 	u32 rxdctl;
 	u8 reg_idx = ring->reg_idx;
@@ -3732,6 +3733,10 @@ void ixgbe_configure_rx_ring(struct ixgbe_adapter *adapter,
 		rxdctl |=  0x080420;
 	}
 
+	/* initialize Rx descriptor 0 */
+	rx_desc = IXGBE_RX_DESC(ring, 0);
+	rx_desc->wb.upper.length = 0;
+
 	/* enable receive descriptor ring */
 	rxdctl |= IXGBE_RXDCTL_ENABLE;
 	IXGBE_WRITE_REG(hw, IXGBE_RXDCTL(reg_idx), rxdctl);
@@ -4940,9 +4945,6 @@ static void ixgbe_clean_rx_ring(struct ixgbe_ring *rx_ring)
 	size = sizeof(struct ixgbe_rx_buffer) * rx_ring->count;
 	memset(rx_ring->rx_buffer_info, 0, size);
 
-	/* Zero out the descriptor ring */
-	memset(rx_ring->desc, 0, rx_ring->size);
-
 	rx_ring->next_to_alloc = 0;
 	rx_ring->next_to_clean = 0;
 	rx_ring->next_to_use = 0;