Extremely slow Ethernet on A20-OLinuXino-LIME2

Rainer · December 10, 2015, 05:45:19 PM

I tested 2 A20-SOM board we received last week with the original kernel (3.4.103) and a buildroot filesystem.
Test with UDP seams be ok but with TCP and scp by 1000 Mbit the performace ist not ok.
After switching to 100Mbit the performance seams to be ok.

iperf -c 192.168.99.2 -u -b 1000m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.99.2, UDP port 5001
Sending 1470 byte datagrams
UDP buffer size: 160 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.99.179 port 33871 connected with 192.168.99.2 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 592 MBytes 497 Mbits/sec
[ 3] Sent 422564 datagrams
[ 3] Server Report:
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 592 MBytes 497 Mbits/sec 0.040 ms 0/422563 (0%)

iperf -c 192.168.99.2
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.99.2, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 21.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.99.106 port 41114 connected with 192.168.99.2 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-33.6 sec 1.63 MBytes 406 Kbits/sec

mii-diag eth0 -F 100baseTx-FD
iperf -c 192.168.99.2
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.99.2, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 21.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.99.106 port 41115 connected with 192.168.99.2 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 58.4 MBytes 48.9 Mbits/sec

soenke · December 10, 2015, 07:13:35 PM

well, that is not good...

Can you check your interface statistics for broken/dropped RX/TX packets? The same on the target machine.

dario · December 11, 2015, 10:57:00 PM

According to the following post, the problem is shared among many other boards based on A20: http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/31-problems-with-gigabit/

infertux · February 23, 2016, 11:08:32 PM

Same problem here, I'm hovering at 15kB/s in gigabit mode whereas I easily reach 11MB/s in 100 Mbit mode.

I've added this in my /etc/network/interfaces as a temporary workaround:

Code Select


auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
  [...]
  up mii-tool -F 100baseTx-FD eth0

Kernel: 4.4.1-sunxi

fallenguru · March 10, 2016, 10:03:14 PM

Same here.

~40 KiB/s on average over a supposed Gigabit connection.

It's not the SD card, I've tried three, one a brand new Samsung Pro. There are no errors in dmesg, SD-related or otherwise. That's on vanilla Debian stretch as of today, using 4.3.0's stmmac. The network behaves as expected when forced down to 100Mb/s. (Which is not an acceptable workaround long-term because I bought the LIME2 especially for its Gbit interface.)

fradav · March 11, 2016, 04:08:45 PM

Quote from: fallenguru on March 10, 2016, 10:03:14 PM
Same here.

~40 KiB/s on average over a supposed Gigabit connection.

It's not the SD card, I've tried three, one a brand new Samsung Pro. There are no errors in dmesg, SD-related or otherwise. That's on vanilla Debian stretch as of today, using 4.3.0's stmmac. The network behaves as expected when forced down to 100Mb/s. (Which is not an acceptable workaround long-term because I bought the LIME2 especially for its Gbit interface.)

Same here, too, joining the pack of disgruntled "native gigabit" users.
I think the potential is there, because when I use a relatively fast usb3/ethernet adapter to my main pc and plug the lime2 to it, after the first disconnect/reconnect the gigabit speed is really there. But going back to a "normal" switch and the lime2 is reverting to the old PSTN modem speed-land.

I guess something is really going on at PHY level but I don't get it (and twiddling GMAC_TX_DELAY in uboot didn't change anything)...
If someone can confirm than he gets real gigabit speed with the lime2, please post your results, and what did you use as uboot/kernel...

Regards

JohnS · March 11, 2016, 06:03:31 PM

Don't all A20 boards have the problem?

John

fallenguru · March 12, 2016, 12:57:23 PM

Olimex support say it "works with some switches/routers and [...] not [...] with others" -- has *anyone* had success with the LIME2 connected to a Gigabit switch at 1000 Mb/s full duplex? Meaning no packet loss and acceptable bandwidth (say >500Mb/s) in both directions? If so please post the make & model of the switch. Maybe incompatible switches would also be useful.

(You can use ping and iperf3 to measure.)

I'll start and say that the Zyxel GS1900 series does NOT work.

olHelp · March 12, 2016, 05:00:32 PM

Just testet my Lime2 against the openWRT router it is wired to.
iperf -c on the router, and iperf -c on the lime gives ~250Mbit/sek. COuld be more, but the measly MIPS cpu in the router is at 100%.

Other way around only gives 120Mbit/sek, but again with 100%load on the router.

Dont have any wired deviced to test, but pinging the lime at the same time from antoher computer returns all pings in the expected timeframe, no losses.

kernel is 4.4.3-1-ARCH

fradav · March 15, 2016, 11:42:24 AM

Quote from: olHelp on March 12, 2016, 05:00:32 PM
Just testet my Lime2 against the openWRT router it is wired to.
iperf -c on the router, and iperf -c on the lime gives ~250Mbit/sek. COuld be more, but the measly MIPS cpu in the router is at 100%.

Other way around only gives 120Mbit/sek, but again with 100%load on the router.

Dont have any wired deviced to test, but pinging the lime at the same time from antoher computer returns all pings in the expected timeframe, no losses.

kernel is 4.4.3-1-ARCH

Hi,

Self compiled kernel or not ? Do you know Which distro? uboot ?

Regards

olHelp · March 15, 2016, 10:04:31 PM

No frills arch linux installation, running from sd card

dancri77 · March 16, 2016, 11:31:29 PM

I have the same issue. I run the test between an Intel machine running linux, with gigabit ethernet, and Lime2.
My switch is a 24-port gigabit. Clearly no problem with my network equipment or cables as I have several PCs in my network with gigabit links working OK.

I run the Vanilla Jessie image from http://www.armbian.com/olimex-lime-2/.

DOWNLINK seems fine, getting max 701 Mbits/sec. See below.
UPLINK is terrible, avg. is 3 Mbits/s.

-------------------DOWNLINK------------------------------------
root@lime2:~# iperf3 -c 192.168.0.11
Connecting to host 192.168.0.11, port 5201
[ 4] local 192.168.0.27 port 58414 connected to 192.168.0.11 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr Cwnd
[ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 59.1 MBytes 495 Mbits/sec 0 204 KBytes
[ 4] 1.00-2.02 sec 69.5 MBytes 575 Mbits/sec 0 335 KBytes
[ 4] 2.02-3.00 sec 65.4 MBytes 557 Mbits/sec 0 506 KBytes
[ 4] 3.00-4.02 sec 65.5 MBytes 541 Mbits/sec 0 765 KBytes
[ 4] 4.02-5.00 sec 77.5 MBytes 660 Mbits/sec 0 765 KBytes
[ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 79.6 MBytes 666 Mbits/sec 0 1.02 MBytes
[ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 81.2 MBytes 683 Mbits/sec 0 1.33 MBytes
[ 4] 7.00-8.01 sec 78.8 MBytes 656 Mbits/sec 0 1.33 MBytes
[ 4] 8.01-9.00 sec 77.5 MBytes 653 Mbits/sec 0 1.50 MBytes
[ 4] 9.00-10.01 sec 83.8 MBytes 701 Mbits/sec 0 1.50 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr
[ 4] 0.00-10.01 sec 738 MBytes 619 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.01 sec 738 MBytes 619 Mbits/sec receiver

--------------------UPLINK------------------------------------------------

root@lime2:~# iperf3 -c 192.168.0.11 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.0.11, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.0.11 is sending
[ 4] local 192.168.0.27 port 58418 connected to 192.168.0.11 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 650 KBytes 5.33 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 1.00-2.00 sec 431 KBytes 3.53 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 2.00-3.00 sec 291 KBytes 2.39 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 3.00-4.00 sec 505 KBytes 4.14 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 535 KBytes 4.38 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 240 KBytes 1.97 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 181 KBytes 1.48 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 7.00-8.00 sec 77.8 KBytes 637 Kbits/sec
[ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 573 KBytes 4.69 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 9.00-10.00 sec 216 KBytes 1.77 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 3.63 MBytes 3.05 Mbits/sec 373 sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 3.61 MBytes 3.03 Mbits/sec receiver

dancri77 · March 16, 2016, 11:56:38 PM

Changing the eth0 interface speed to 100 mbit gives stable 94 Mbit/s rate in both direction.

ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex full

root@lime2:~# iperf3 -c 192.168.0.9 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.0.9, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.0.9 is sending
[ 4] local 192.168.0.27 port 52488 connected to 192.168.0.9 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.5 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 1.00-2.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 93.9 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 2.00-3.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 93.9 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 3.00-4.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.1 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.1 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 93.9 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.0 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 7.00-8.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.1 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.1 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 9.00-10.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.1 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 112 MBytes 94.2 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 112 MBytes 94.2 Mbits/sec receiver

root@lime2:~# iperf3 -c 192.168.0.9
Connecting to host 192.168.0.9, port 5201
[ 4] local 192.168.0.27 port 52484 connected to 192.168.0.9 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr Cwnd
[ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 11.4 MBytes 95.7 Mbits/sec 0 219 KBytes
[ 4] 1.00-2.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.4 Mbits/sec 0 236 KBytes
[ 4] 2.00-3.00 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.3 Mbits/sec 0 246 KBytes
[ 4] 3.00-4.00 sec 11.5 MBytes 96.4 Mbits/sec 0 263 KBytes
[ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 11.0 MBytes 92.3 Mbits/sec 0 263 KBytes
[ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.9 Mbits/sec 0 263 KBytes
[ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 93.8 Mbits/sec 0 263 KBytes
[ 4] 7.00-8.00 sec 11.4 MBytes 95.4 Mbits/sec 0 263 KBytes
[ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 11.0 MBytes 92.3 Mbits/sec 0 263 KBytes
[ 4] 9.00-10.00 sec 11.7 MBytes 98.5 Mbits/sec 0 413 KBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 113 MBytes 94.7 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 112 MBytes 93.9 Mbits/sec receiver

fallenguru · March 20, 2016, 09:22:40 PM

No change with an old dumb 3Com OfficeConnect Gigabit Switch 8. The kernel doesn't make a difference either, I've tried the legacy sunxi one and the 4.4 that's in Debian testing.

dario · March 27, 2016, 12:29:21 AM

Some work was done. There is a patch for U-Boot here: https://github.com/OLIMEX/OLINUXINO/issues/31

I have personally tested the patch posted there. It works pretty good!