network speed is very on Linux

[guelph]

Hi,
I have a IBM BladeCenter and install RedHat Linux on two
blades. the network card driver is tg3.
I use mii-tool check the network speed, get this message:
==============================
10:06:05 eth0: 10 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
10:06:05 eth1: 100 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
10:06:06 eth0: 10 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
10:06:06 eth1: autonegotiation restarted, no link
10:06:07 eth0: 10 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
10:06:07 eth1: no link
10:06:08 eth0: no link
10:06:08 eth1: no link
10:06:09 eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-HD flow-control, no link
10:06:09 eth1: no link
10:06:10 eth0: link ok
10:06:10 eth1: no link
10:06:11 eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-HD flow-control, no link
10:06:11 eth1: 100 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
10:06:12 eth1: no autonegotiation, 100baseTx-HD, link ok
10:06:13 eth0: autonegotiation restarted, no link
10:06:13 eth1: 100 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
10:06:14 eth1: autonegotiation restarted, no link
10:06:15 eth1: 100 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
10:06:17 eth0: no link
10:06:17 eth1: 100 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
10:06:18 eth0: 10 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
10:06:18 eth1: 100 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
===============================
I tried to use "mii-tool" to set autonegotiation or force to 100Mbit, but doesn't work.

Then I installed the lastest driver bcm5700 V8.2.18, use "ethtool" to check the speed, looks fine. But when I copy files from blade to other box outsite bladecenter, the speed is still very low, about 100KB/s and not stable. But when I transmit data from box outside blade to blade, the speed is much faster about 1MB/s

I tried to transmit data between two blades (one use tg3, another use bcm5700), the speed is much faster ( I think they use BladeCenter CSM swith 1Gb), but not stable, sometimes the transmit stalled, sometimes the speed can reach 30MB/s, sometimes only 1-3MB/s.

Any tip,clue,help will be appreciated.

 

[jneiberger]

Is your switch port set to auto? If not, set it to auto and make sure your NIC is set to auto.

 

[guelph]

Hi,

My swith is set to auto.
I read a articl talking about tg3 driver get problem on bladecenter, but bcm5700 should works fine.

I did a search on internet, some people said the autoneg should be disabled. I tried "ethtool -s eth1 autoneg off" , but doesn't work, give me an error msg" invalid argument", but "ethtool -s eth1 autoneg on" works all right.

So weird!

 

[jneiberger]

If you're connecting to a switch made in the last three years or so and you're using updated NIC drivers then you should leave both sides set to auto. Any other setting can cause behavioral inconsistencies that will drive you crazy.

If you determine that one or both sides of the connection has a problem with autonegotiation then you can try hard-setting them. You can try 100/Full but it's possible, perhaps likely, that you'll have better luck with 100/half.

 

[PolishKnight]

Hello!

I've had this problem as well. Here's what will fix the problem 100% (although it's dirty): ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off duplex full. The problem is caused when either there's a mismatch between the switch and the network card addressed by linux (and often other network devices): The unit that's set to autoneg may start out with a lower speed protocol (half) and the switch, even if set to full duplex forced, will take it. Just setting autoneg off doesn't help! The first thing the driver will try is half duplex anyway. You have to force it to full AND turn autoneg off!!! (mii-tool should work too but just be sure to both set autoneg and duplex at the same time too.)

I've tried some kernel options to pass to the tg3/bcm5700 drivers and sometimes they work but not necessarily. I think that rewriting the drivers might do the trick (have it start out with duplex full similar to what we expect from modems.) If someone can give me the insmod option lines for tg3 and bcm5700 to turn autoneg off/duplex full, I'll try them on my box (and be quite grateful.) I would like some kind of string that's more universal so I can put it into autoyast.