Bug 47822 – Slow network (one direction) with gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.5

• Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Peter Kerwien 2004-04-14 12:04:05 UTC]

When I switched from a vanilla kernel 2.4.25 to a gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.5 kernel, my network became horribly slow in one direction (uploading to my server). I'm having a 3Com NIC in the server so I'm using the 3c59x driver.

With the old kernel I get almost full 100 Mbps throughput during FTP transfers, both downloading from the server and during upload, but with the 2.6.5 kernel I get full bandwidth during download but only around 200-300 kbps during upload.

I experienced this also when I tried a vanilla 2.6.4 and 2.6.5 kernel, so I don't think this is something Gentoo specific.

I have seen similiar reports e.g.:

http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2119

but I don't know what patches SuSE has included i their kernels, because I have never experienced this in a 2.4.x kernel, only in the 2.6.

Please tell me what more information you need.


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Compile and install a gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.5 kernel with 3c59x support.
2. Install proftpd.
3. Upload a file from another machine (in my case a Windows XP Pro machine)

Actual Results:  
Very slow upload speed, approx 200 kbps.

Expected Results:  
High upload speed, approx 100 Mbps.

Portage 2.0.50-r5 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.2, glibc-2.3.2-r9, 2.6.5-gentoo)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.5-gentoo i686 Pentium III (Coppermine)
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.13
Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.58-r1
Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.3
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium3 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
COMPILER="gcc3"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config
/usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref
/usr/share/config /var/qmail/alias /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium3 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.linux.ee/pub/gentoo/distfiles/
ftp://ftp.linux.ee/pub/gentoo/distfiles/ ftp://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo/
http://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo/"
MAKEOPTS="-j1"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY=""
SYNC="rsync://localhost/gentoo-portage"
USE="X apache2 apm arts avi berkdb cdr crypt cups encode foomaticdb gdbm gif gpm
gtk gtk2 imap imlib java jpeg kde libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mozilla mpeg
mysql ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python qt quicktime
readline samba sdl slang spell ssl svga tcltk tcpd truetype x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib"

[Comment 1 J.Taimr 2004-04-15 13:03:36 UTC]

Perhaps I hit the same problem: in otherwise stable network (100M-Fx) kernels 2.4.x work without troubles. Newly installed kernel 2.6.5 on a computer with 3COM NIC (also 3c59x driver) shows monotonously increasing number of Rx overruns and errors. The number of overruns is much higher, than the number of errors, the speed of the connection is up to 1/4 in comparison with 2.4.x kernel. Somethings seems to be wrong with 3c59x in 2.6.x line.

[Comment 2 Peter Kerwien 2004-04-15 14:48:55 UTC]

Yes, it seems to be something wrong with the 3c59x driver in the 2.6.x kernels. I've borrowed a Netgear card, i.e. using the natsemi driver instead => full bandwidth if both directions.

[Comment 3 Richard Torkar 2004-04-16 01:50:47 UTC]

Could the original reporter report this at bugzilla.kernel.org if it hasn't already been done? This seems to be a vanilla 2.6.* problem and not a problem with a gento-dev-source patch. 

[Comment 4 Peter Kerwien 2004-04-16 13:48:08 UTC]

Done!

http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2526

[Comment 5 Jason Cox (RETIRED) 2004-04-28 13:50:23 UTC]

Leaving for upstream. It's a vanilla kernel issue.