OS: OpenSuSE Tumbleweed
Kernel: 5.9.10-1-default
I own 6 WD USB 3.0 HDDs
It seems that the kernel versions seems to have an effect on file copying performance
For example I used to add the repository for the latest kernels (i dont anymore because i see that tumbleweed updates frequently enough, and i presume by default with more
stable kernels anyway)
HISTORY ABOUT USB 3.0 NTFS IO SPEEDS:
ENTRY DATE: Wednesday the 5th of August, 2020
OPENSUSE Tumbleweed with Kernel 5.7 = Slow USB 3 HDD FILE READ/WRITE COPY/MOVE OPERATIONS
Speed averaging about 30 to 40 MB/S
INCREASE CAME WHEN I DECIDED TO UPGRADE TO KERNEL 5.8-rc1
Upgrade Came from standard ‘Software Updates’ (Not Yast2 Package Manager)
All Subsequent Kernel 5.8-rc releases kept/maintained the Very fast USB 3.0 NTFS File Copy/Move Speeds
AVERAGE USB 3 HDD TRANSFER SPEEDS: ~90 to 140 MB/S
Now this post is NOT about microsofts NTFS or FAT32 File systems speeds under linux
Last year i formatted one of my WD USB 3.0 HDDs to BTRFS so i could effectively back up any/all linux files from either the /HOME or /ROOT partitions
to guarantee that any/all linux file permissions would be stored (such permissions could not exist on a NTFS or FAT32 partition)
But ever since moving on from kernel 5.8-rc1 read speeds from my USB 3.0 BTRFS partition never get faster than about 39 MB/s at best
sometimes the file copy speeds drop to as low as 1.8 ~ 2.0 MB/s - the average being approxx 30 MB/s
I am quite familiar with the differance between copying lots of little files as opposed to copying huge sized files
but even with such general FS laws/rules - speed that degraded bad or low, are totally ridiculous imo
the fact of the matter is, even my USB 3.0 NTFS drives provide a faster and more consistent transfer rate that BTRFS - which was not the case under kernel 5.8-rc1
also, i cant see any settings under yast to change buffer/cache’s for any drives at all
Later Kernel design glitch ?
One hypothesis i have for these now very slow speeds has to do with the kernels ability to quickly slow down processor utilisation (useful for laptops for power conserving)
Strangely enough, my USB 3.0 6TB HDD appears to be much much faster at copying files, giving me an average of approxx 100~110 MB/s
ALL My file copy speed tests are coping either a number or directorys or files into a folder on my /HOME folder (my /HOME is actually NOT a genuine separate
partition its actually part of my /ROOT partition)
Tumbleweed is installed on a Samsung 860 - 500 GB SSD which has extemely fast write speeds
As for the whole issue about NTFS operating under linux - well, this in itself seems to be an ironic controversey, as apparently for ‘user safety’ reasons regarding
WRITE access to NTFS partitions, this is not in ‘user space’ using ‘fuseblk’ - which apparently slows read/write access down quite considerably
I would like to see this permanently changed in OpenSuSE (or at the very least given an option to change it to a system level) at the Installation
so i can once again get real USB 3.0 speeds on all my USB 3.0 NTFS formatted HDD’s
Feedback wanted - thank you