MiniMX 1GB/8GB slow ethernet speed

envagyok · September 22, 2016 at 7:18 PM

I have 2 MiniMX 1/8GB with latest libreelec on nand.
The ethernet adapter show working at 1000M (gigabit):
MiniMX:~ # ethtool eth0
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: Symmetric Receive-only
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: external
Auto-negotiation: on
Supports Wake-on: ug
Wake-on: d
Current message level: 0x0000003f (63)
drv probe link timer ifdown ifup
Link detected: yes

But the copy speed is dramatically slow.
I have gigabit nas (WDMyCloud), and i try one file copy from nas to nas. Size 548MB
My desktop PC (Intel xeon e5450, abit ip35 with built in gigabit ethernet) made it 20 second, my laptop Intel Pentium N3540 with realtek gigabit ethernet made it 40 second, MiniMX made it 120 second!
I try from nas to nand too, but with the same result. I try the copied file from nand copy back to nas with same result.
I try without, and with wsize, no significant result.

Why so bad the network performance?
How can i speed up it? I try change ethernet cables from desktop and from notebook to minimx, but no result. With every cable, every device make always the speed what before, so no change, it's not cable fault.

**mmpp** · September 22, 2016 at 7:27 PM

Hello,

the bottleneck of any file operation will always be on the MiniMX side: neither EMMC, SD-card or USB hard drives are fast enough to catch up to gigabit network. If you are fimiliar with the linux command prompt, try to copy the remote file from the NAS to /dev/null (essentially throwing away the data as soon as it arrives). This would give you an indication of the performance of SMB reads.

To really test network performance, one would have to use "iperf" (see iPerf - The TCP, UDP and SCTP network bandwidth measurement tool) or a similar cross-plattform tool for the MiniMX and your desktop.

envagyok · September 22, 2016 at 7:46 PM

I copy from nas to nas. So no nand,emmc,sd-card,usb pendrive or hdd concerned.
And 40 mbit/s is soo slow
My desktop made it 27MB/s
My notebook 13 MB/s
MiniMX 4 MB/s

**mmpp** · September 22, 2016 at 7:51 PM

Quote from envagyok

I copy from nas to nas. So no nand,emmc,sd-card,usb pendrive or hdd concerned.
And 40 mbit/s is soo slow
My desktop made it 27MB/s
My notebook 13 MB/s
MiniMX 4 MB/s

Sorry I did not understand that you move files to and from the NAS. The problem could be duplex then - I still recommend to try to read from SMB to /dev/null to see if it is working if only one direction is active.

envagyok · September 22, 2016 at 8:04 PM

Quote from mmpp

Sorry I did not understand that you move files to and from the NAS. The problem could be duplex then - I still recommend to try to read from SMB to /dev/null to see if it is working if only one direction is active.

Dev null:

Eth:

My NAS is WDMyCloud with gigabit, and with pc, and notebook i can read from nas 80-100MB/s
[hr]
My slow laptop copy to ssd from nas the same file:

**mmpp** · September 22, 2016 at 8:20 PM

For comparison a read from my NAS (dedicated server with raid-6 and gigabit).

My S905 box has 100 MBit/s only, so this is very decent performance.

Can you force your box to 100 MBit/s to see if anything changes?

ant_thomas · September 22, 2016 at 8:33 PM

Definitely try and do a speedtest using iperf (or iperf3) just to check.

On my 100mbit S905 box I'm able to max it with results of 95+ mbit/s.

If you're connected to the same switch as the other systems with good performance then you'll be OK there but I have seen some gigabit routers having poor network speeds.

envagyok · September 22, 2016 at 8:47 PM

Quote from ant_thomas

Definitely try and do a speedtest using iperf (or iperf3) just to check.

On my 100mbit S905 box I'm able to max it with results of 95+ mbit/s.

If you're connected to the same switch as the other systems with good performance then you'll be OK there but I have seen some gigabit routers having poor network speeds.

My router is Asus RT-AC56U router with latest merlin fw.
With my desktop, and notebook with windows always reach 100MB/s speed with this router.
Tomorrow i try to connect switch my nas, and minimx,
I have wetek play, and i do the same dev/null test:

[hr]
I played.
Mount share directory from wetek play, and from other minimx.
Then copx to dev/null to 9 and 43 MB/s
Then mount again my wdmycloud, but without rsize parameter:
mount -t cifs -o username=admin //192.168.1.3/Public /storage/test
Then copy to dev/null with 32MB/s, what is better result.
What is the best mounting option to my wdmycloud?

kostaman · September 23, 2016 at 1:52 AM

Quote from mmpp

the bottleneck of any file operation will always be on the MiniMX side: neither EMMC, SD-card or USB hard drives are fast enough to catch up to gigabit network.

I have to agree with this comment.
I have one of these MiniMx's 1g/8gb (LE on internal memory) and have noticed the eMMC is the slowest out of the boxes i have tested.
The bootup time is where i first noticed the issue. It is not as fast as my cheap MiniM8s Pro.
I dont know if the 2gb ram in the pro makes a difference in my observation.
The ethernet is also slow in waking up a connection when first booting up.
Just putting it out there. Cheers.

envagyok · September 23, 2016 at 5:23 AM

Quote from kostaman

I have to agree with this comment.
I have one of these MiniMx's 1g/8gb (LE on internal memory) and have noticed the eMMC is the slowest out of the boxes i have tested.
The bootup time is where i first noticed the issue. It is not as fast as my cheap MiniM8s Pro.
I dont know if the 2gb ram in the pro makes a difference in my observation.
The ethernet is also slow in waking up a connection when first booting up.
Just putting it out there. Cheers.

Display More

When i copy from nas to /dev/null then not matter eMMC speed !
I tried with switch, same result
average 40MB/s is the speed to /dev/null
I tried mount my NAS as nfs server, then i reach 69MB/s
I dont understand cifs why not work as fast my windows pc. Copy to /dev/null not slowdown the speed.
I have friend from other forum. He have miniMX, and reach 100MB/s from nas copy to /dev/null (he has 005 or 006 installed)
I dont know it is nas problem, or wrong parameter to mount, or MiniMX?

Is any way to try copy speed at gui instead ssh?
The /dev/null i cannot mount at kodi

**mmpp** · September 23, 2016 at 10:12 AM

Hi,

if NFS performs so much better than CIFS, the problem is most likely not the hardware or the network driver. 40 MB/s is a good value, given the limited CPU in the MiniMX box.

You can try to further tune the CIFS mount parameters: I did use the default with no options and had good performance, you can try leaving them out or using other values. I found several forum discussions about slow CIFS, and there rsize=16384,wsize=57344 was recommended to be used in a gigabit environment.

The is no speed test for the GUI. But please try one more thing: connect with two sessions using ssh and watch the cpu load during a long file transfer (using "top").

envagyok · September 23, 2016 at 10:44 AM

Quote from mmpp

Hi,

if NFS performs so much better than CIFS, the problem is most likely not the hardware or the network driver. 40 MB/s is a good value, given the limited CPU in the MiniMX box.

You can try to further tune the CIFS mount parameters: I did use the default with no options and had good performance, you can try leaving them out or using other values. I found several forum discussions about slow CIFS, and there rsize=16384,wsize=57344 was recommended to be used in a gigabit environment.

The is no speed test for the GUI. But please try one more thing: connect with two sessions using ssh and watch the cpu load during a long file transfer (using "top").

CPU 2-3%
The speed with this parameters worst than without prameters
MiniMX:~ # umount /storage/test
umount: can't unmount /storage/test: Invalid argument
MiniMX:~ # mount -t cifs -o username=admin,rsize=16384,wsize=57344 //192.168.1.3
/Public /storage/test
MiniMX:~ # dd if=/storage/test/lib.img of=/dev/null bs=1M
548+0 records in
548+0 records out
574619648 bytes (548.0MB) copied, 32.524298 seconds, 16.8MB/s
MiniMX:~ #

mount without rsize,wsize i reach 40-42MB/s with 3-4% cpu
mount nfs 68MB/s with 3-4% cpu

I think the problem is with nas, but then why makes to me with windows machine 90+MB/s copy speed to real ssd storage, not just /dev/null, as miniMX
Maybe other version of cifs use windows computer?
Or use other protocol?
Is samba mount in minimx?
I have friend at other forum, he has minimx with 005 or 006 revision of libreelec, and with other nas he can more than 100MB/s transfer test to /dev/null
[hr]
I share a directory on my pc, and i mount to miniMX.
Without wsize, rsize it can copy 82MB/s to /dev/null
with parameters it can 9MB/s

Thats something wrong with NAS i think, but i dont understand then why can i copy the same file from my nas to my desktop/notebook windows pc at 90+MB/s?
I have Asus RT-AC56U router, and switch setting:
Jumbo frame- disable
nat acceleration: disable
spanning-tree protocol: enable
Is that correct?

envagyok · September 23, 2016 at 12:56 PM

So..
From pc to minimx 82MB/s
From NAS to minimx 42 MB/s
From NAS to PC 90MB/s
From other PC to PC 104MB/s
I SSH to NAS too, and see cpu usage %
The smbd process on my nas 30-40% when copy to MiniMX, and 80% when copy to PC.
It seems , i dont know why the MiniMX not working enough fast, when copy from NAS. Interestly when copy from PC, then perform twice good.
Why?

**mmpp** · September 28, 2016 at 8:32 PM

Hi,

today's devel build has some changes for gigabit ethernet.

**kszaq** · September 28, 2016 at 8:39 PM

The change doesn't affect receive speeds.

I have tested my SMB rates and I always got >100MB/s throughput when transferring to /dev/null with 7.0.2.007.