SF8008 Supreme ethernet problem

[Tobor]

Hello,

I'm trying to figure out a problem with Octagon SF8008 Supreme ethernet connection.

When I try to download files, connection is very slow (XXX KB/s - X MB/s) and speed varies drastically all the time. Looking at the (smart) switch the SF8008 is connected to, I see large amounts of bad packets reported for the the port. Upload is faster but speed still varies a lot and switch reports bad packets.

What I have tried:

- 3 different ethernet cables, 1m - 3m, all cat5e or cat6
- Different ports on the smart switch
- Adding a basic dumb 1G switch between the smart switch and the SF8008
- OpenATV 7.6 Beta, 7.5.1 and OpenViX 7.6
- fixed IP settings & DHCP
- different methods of transferring data i.e. copying from SF8008 samba share, FTP and copying locally on the SF8008 to a mounted share

If I use WLAN connection, I get a steady 15 MB/s (limited by the WLAN connection available).

If I use Define OS 7.0, I get a steady 35 MB/s over the ethernet port and there are no bad packets reported by the smart switch.

No other devices connected to the smart switch have any issues and I can even get full 10G wire speed.

ethtool on the SF8008 reports same parameters for eth0 as the smart switch does for the port the SF8008 is connected to.

Storage is 512GB NVMe drive (capable of doing 1400 MB/s read and 600 MB/s write, large bock sequential, on a PC), using ext4, mounted internally in the SF8008 Supreme M.2 slot.

I did manage to find one identical issue reported for SF8008 Supreme on OpenPLi forum but unfortunately there was no resolution.

Any thoughts on how to fix / trouble shoot this further?

[Papi2000]

1. against the bad packets:

Code: Alles auswählen

ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex half 

All HiSi boxes have that behavior. You will find many postst regarding that unsolved topic.
You can add that that command in an /usr/bin/enigma2_prestart.sh (rights 0755).
See there:
viewtopic.php?p=495998&hilit=ethertool#p495998

2. Your highspeed storage device is internal via a slow connection wired. Much more than 100mBit will not really be possible. ~12MB/s was reported in the past. It does NOT matter, which compatible hardware you have. There will be no fix or change.

[Tobor]

Wow, that was fast, thank you very much!

Not really what I wanted to hear, wasn't aware of HiSi 1G ethernet being "garbage" :-(

Don't really like the idea of using WLAN at all but sounds like I need to explore that option further as dropping down to 100Mb ethernet is not very appealing either.

Just out of personal curiosity will test Define OS behavior further, as said I was getting something like 35MB/s over ethernet with FTP, and no bad packets. Could have been just a fluke though.

As to the NVMe, even before buying the SF8008 Supreme I assumed that the NVMe M.2 slot is using some sort of "USB bridge" which appears to be the case. As part of my trouble shooting I did a quick dd test earlier on and I think I saw about 33MB/s read & write which I would be just fine with, if only I could get that over the network as well.

[Papi2000]

Yes. But async two-way gives about half the speed through that path.
But good luck anyway.
And you should keep in mind, that encryption for WiFi in an STB always is done via software beside all other tasks.

[Tobor]

FWIW, just could not let this be, wanted to try and understand a bit more as to what is going on and even more, why...

Based on some dd tests I did, I can get app. 35 MB/s either read or write out of the NVMe drive which is pretty much as I guessed (assumed that the USB NVMe bridge is connected to a USB2 bus which indeed appears to be the case).

After "optimizing" WiFi a bit I get around 17 MB/s read or write over WiFi to the NVMe drive. This makes sense as based on lsusb output it looks like the JM583 NVMe bridge and the RTL8822CU WiFi are actually sharing the same USB2 bus. Also if instead of the NVMe drive I use a USB3 memory stick in the right side USB3 port on the SF8008 I can transfer 30+ MB/s over WiFi.

If my assumptions above are correct, then "that's all folks", maximum for NVMe - WiFi combination reached.

One final question if I may: does anyone know why Define OS 7.0 does not seem to suffer from the HiSi 1G ethernet issue (as said also already earlier, using Define OS I can get 35 MB/s over LAN from the NVMe drive with zero bad packets reported by my switch) and even more importantly, any chance that "the magic Define OS does with the 1G LAN connection" might find it's way into OpenATV as well some time in the future?

[Papi2000]

As already mentionened, the electronic function groups are internally connected via a PCI bus, that allows about 33MHz and at 8Bit transfer 33MB/s. But sharing at different protocols make it capable 33MB/s or half the speed - as you found.
There is no magic voodo about the wireing.
And the performance issue of the HiSi network implementation in the OE-A? As we know, all OE-A images including the master oPLi have the same behavoir.
The DefineOS uses pretty much internal hacks non-public in the image. If you like it more, just use it.