Network exeedingly slow with Suse 12.1

English Network/Internet
1

setting up a new computer (Intel i7, network chip Intel 82579 on motherboard). The internet access is pppoE to a Livebox [Inventel, from 2009], the LAN has an old Macintosh Eternet wired plus, a Windows laptop and a Linux eeepc webbook wifi. The network access was OK with my old Suse 12.1 on a P4 computer, and still is with the other machines; now it lags terribly, and only on the new, faster machine.

ping to localhost is OK, answers in microseconds, not loosing anything
ping to the Livebox or to the Mac looses 40-50% of packets, lasts usually 30-35 ms, but 1/10 times 1200 to 1700ms. No wonder IT lags.

e1000e runs this show

/var/log/messages shows a series of messages
[XXXX27.54040] # e1000e: eth0 NIC Link is Down
[XXXX29.195658] # e1000e: eth0 NIC Link is Up 100Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
[XXXX29.195666] # e1000e: 0000:00.19.0 eth0: 10/100 speed: disablling TSO
[XXXX29.347878] # e1000e: eth0 NIC Link is Down

over again with variable periodicity, about 1 seconds (at the time I copied this I was not trying to get anything, when it is the case, the time up is up to about two seconds).

Disabling IPv6 does not change anything (and the other machines use IPv6).

I see from various posts that this is a rather common problem, but people appear to fallback to their old configuration rather than correct it. Would it be that I have to set the speed explicitly for e1000e?

– I suppose the server promises 100Mbps, but can’t keep its word (and I imagine how this could happen). But this is the end of my science: I do not know how I could try this. I went through all the tests from the manual.

2

Writing to explain to sbdy else made things clearer:

ethtool -s eth0 speed 10 duplex half

now ping to the livebox is normal – average 1.899ms, 0% packet loss
and firefox delivers decently.
Next:

  • check that this is the better setting
  • make it permanent
3

→ erratum: Inventel Livebox router from 2007

4

On 01/03/2012 11:16 PM, polbrian wrote:
> Writing to explain to sbdy else made things clearer

that often happens…congrats on working it out!!

–
DD
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!

5

I would have spent less time if I had found a post with a description of the problem before; that’s another good reason to write to forums.

I’m not through yet.
I do not know how to probe the box ethernet advertised link mode,
and
I do not know the correct scripting of this to make it permanent. I guess I have to write it somewhere in /etc/init.d, but I never did that. Isn’t there a particular script to patch?

6

> I’m not through yet.

i don’t have the knowledge to help you…hopefully a real guru will look
in!!

–
DD
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!

7

Lacking information about the Livebox capability, try-and-error gave

ethtool -s eth0 speed 10 duplex full

as the fastest setup.
(I do not like the send-until-breaks method, though)

8

Making the change permanent

Learning by reading the /etc/init.d/rc3.d/S02network script and looking around in the internet.

Edited following line in /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth0 from

ETHTOOL_OPTIONS=''

to

ETHTOOL_OPTIONS='speed 10 duplex full'

and rebooted, with far as I can see now, no network problem anymore.

Note: Purposefully, I did not disable autonegociation. The Livebox does not seem to be able to negociate; a replacement for it might.

9

Hi. Have a similar problem, and thanks for getting my system usable again with the NIC setting idea polbrian!
Reinstalled 12.1, was on 11.2 earlier and had no issues then.After re-installation I had the following figures when testing with iperf:
Upload to Linux box: 942 Mbits/sec
Download from Linux box: 0.00 bits/sec (well, some data goes through once and a while, but not much)

Settings at this time:

Settings for eth0:
        Supported ports:  TP MII ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
        Supported pause frame use: No
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
        Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Link partner advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                             100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                             1000baseT/Full
        Link partner advertised pause frame use: Symmetric
        Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 1000Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: MII
        PHYAD: 0
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Supports Wake-on: pumbg
        Wake-on: g
        Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
                               drv probe ifdown ifup
        Link detected: yes

After setting to 100 (ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex full) I get around 94.4 Mbits/sec both up and down.

Why is this? Is this really normal?

Regards
/Johan

10

I’m doing my own reply as well since I kind of solved my problem yesterday.
Borrowed an Intel NIC from a friend yesterday and worked flawlessly right away. And I’m quite sure I never had GB speed on 11.2 either now when I see how fast I can transfer files.

Regards
/Johan - Who will avoid Realtek in the future.