sk interface (Marvell 88E8001) sluggish?

Tue May 17 19:40:11 PDT 2005

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nicolas Blais" <nb_root at videotron.ca>
To: "FreeBSD-Current" <current at freebsd.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 9:32 PM
Subject: sk interface (Marvell 88E8001) sluggish?

> Hi,
>
> I have a popular Marvell 88E8001 on my A8V-Deluxe (Rev2) which doesn't 
> work
> like it should in FreeBSD. Whenever accessing anything on the network
> (whether local or internet), there is a 2-3 second delay before anything 
> gets
> thru. Data transfer with small files or large files on the internet is 
> slow
> (800 K/s avg in Win*XP compared to a seemingly random amount from 200-600 
> K/s
> avg in FreeBSD from the same source). My cable modem test (available at
> http://speedtest.cogeco.net) is much slower in FreeBSD than in XP for some
> reason (3025 kbps down, 118 kbps up compared to 6404 kbps down and 825 
> kbps
> up in XP). Data transfer in the LAN is also much slower in FreeBSD than in 
> XP
> (about 50%).
>
> To make matters worst, whenever I'm transfering files in background, my 
> bktr
> turns sluggish in fxtv as though the Marvell and the WinTV are battling 
> for
> interrups. This problem is also non-existant in XP. To remedy this 
> problem, I
> tried the WinTV on every PCI card on my MB but changes nothing. Whenever 
> file
> transfer is done, my bktr acts fine. Yes, I tried both setting of PNP OS 
> in
> BIOS.
>
> There are no watchdog timeouts, no kernel messages, no true hangs/death of
> sk0. My old and faithful 3COM 905C works #1 in this machine but I would
> rather use my onboard gigabit card when I actually do get a gigabit 
> switch.
> (Currently, the sk0 is connected to a 100baseTX router). This machine runs
> httpd 24/7 and a fully working sk0 would probably be more efficient for
> everyone.
>
> Here's the setup:
>
> <snip>
> bktr0: <BrookTree 878> mem 0xe3e00000-0xe3e00fff irq 11 at device 9.0 on 
> pci0
> bktr0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
> bktr0: Hauppauge Model 44811 C333
> bktr0: Hauppauge WinCast/TV, Philips FR1236 NTSC FM tuner.
> pci0: <multimedia> at device 9.1 (no driver attached)
> skc0: <Marvell Gigabit Ethernet> port 0xd400-0xd4ff mem 
> 0xfbb00000-0xfbb03fff
> irq 10 at device 10.0 on pci0
> skc0: interrupt moderation is 100 us
> skc0: Marvell Yukon Lite Gigabit Ethernet rev. (0x9)
> sk0: <Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. Yukon> on skc0
> sk0: Ethernet address: 00:11:d8:44:15:f4
> miibus0: <MII bus> on sk0
> e1000phy0: <Marvell 88E1000 Gigabit PHY> on miibus0
> e1000phy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 
> 1000baseTX-FDX,
> auto
> atapci0: <VIA 6420 SATA150 controller> port
> 0xd000-0xd007,0xc800-0xc803,0xc400-0xc407,0xc000-0xc003,0xb800-0xb80f,0xb400-0xb4ff
> irq 10 at device 15.0 on pci0
>
> clk01a# ifconfig
> sk0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>        inet 192.168.1.100 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
>        inet6 fe80::211:d8ff:fe44:15f4%sk0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
>        ether 00:11:d8:44:15:f4
>        media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex,flag0,flag1>)
>        status: active
> plip0: flags=108810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
> lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
>        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
>        inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
>        inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3
>
> no special ifconfig flags.  Latest 6-CURRENT.
>
> Any help truly appreciated,
>
> Nicolas.

This is just some hand waving with no hard numbers but I have noticed 
less-than-I-hoped speed on sk too.
I have a couple of freebsd 5.3 boxes with Linksys sk-based pci cards hooked 
to a couple different gigabit switches on different lans.
1) at home the switch is a cheap linksys 8port gigabit and the other machine 
is my hp zd7000 laptop with built-in realtek 100mbit running xp & fbsd 5.3 & 
6-current
2) at work the switch is a Foundry EdgeIron 24G and the other machines are 
the same laptop, some intel shg2 boxes with built-in intel pro/1000 nics, 
but the OS on those is sco osr5 which might be slow itself despite the ideal 
hardware, and an intel shg2 box with a broadcom bcme gigabit pci card 
running no particular OS at the moment (can boot freesbie/knoppix or install 
any os at will)

Obviously at home I am not expecting anything more than 100mbit speeds but I 
wasn't getting even that.
I was already going to get another linksys card and stick it in a dual-p3-1G 
suse 9.2 box at work too. (They are only $30 full local brick&mortar 
retail!)
And I have some decent 3com & intel pci 100mbit cards as well as the built 
in realtek junk in every box I can compare against.

What I don't have is much time for doing good tests but since I have the 
hardware, especially at work, and claim to have "noticed less than expected 
speed", I'll do at least a few.
I think I have enough combinations of switches and motherboards and other 
nics and other OS's to show some kind of pattern.

Brian K. White  --  brian at aljex.com  --  http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
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