[Gutsy] performance of new rt2500pci driver is poor

[wodz]

Binary package hint: linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-9-generic

In Feisty rt2500 ralink wifi card was using legacy rt2500 driver. In Gutsy new rt2x00 driver is used. As of 2.6.22-9 version new driver seems to work with my card but throughput is about two times lower than using legacy driver. It is painfull - new driver is unable to sustain 200kb/s transfer while legacy one has no problem with that.

[Matt Vickers (mattyv)]

I too am experiencing serious speed issues (peak <90kb/s) now that rt2x00 is working by default. I am hesitant to confirm the bug until I do a bit more testing (ie. try the latest rt2x00 daily from serialmonkey), but if symptoms persist I'll confirm.

[Frank Groeneveld (frankgroeneveld)]

Before, I had about 1MB/s as max throughput, but with this driver I only get 70kb/s :(

[Frank Groeneveld (frankgroeneveld)]

This seems like a solution: http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4114
Although the current version in gutsy doesn't have that patch included.

[wodz (wodz)]

Version of the driver included in Gutsy is 2.0.4 while current version form daily snapshot is marked 2.0.7. Maybe someone could give a try this new version? Currently I have no access to my Gutsy machine so cannot do this myself.

[mastervivi (mastervivi)]

i'm having the same problem with rt2400pci and gutsy tribe 5...

[Frank Groeneveld (frankgroeneveld)]

Are there any developers looking at this bug, or is this going to be delayed to gutsy+1, so that we have a broken gutsy?

[Kai Stempfle (kai-stempfle)]

I can confirm this behavior of the rt2x00 driver on gutsy gibbon tribe 5 (linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-10-generic, installed version 2.6.10-22.23)

Network performance is stalling at 100-110kb/s on an 16mbit/s capable connection after about 1 minute uninterrupted full netload. Interruptions seem to increase the time of non-stalled speed (cannot confir this so far, only tried that 3 times, yet).

I was unable to test the daily CVS rt2x00 release so far, because of build-errors, I will post again, when I know something more useful.

[wodz (wodz)]

Maybe this will help
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4190

[Kai Stempfle (kai-stempfle)]

Thanks, that worked for me. Unfortunately, CVS drivers don't let me even associate with my AP.

So I'm stuck with the version included in the modules package.

[Jos Dehaes (jos-dehaes)]

Using the rt2x00 driver on my PCMCIA nic causes big troubles: network manager somehow breaks suspend and even refuses to shutdown:
 Sep 2 23:16:19 hamerkeuh kernel: [ 974.460000] unregister_netdevice: waiting for wlan0 to become free. Usage count = 1

This message repeats over and over again, rmmod does not work, all operations that require network block (sudo won't work, lucky I have a root account), the only remedy is the power button.

Without networkmanager I can use the driver (with wicd or manually with wpa_supplicant), but with said performance loss.

The legacy driver still works fine for me, suspend/resume works, and throughput is good.

Please re-enable the legacy driver for rt2500 in gutsy!! The new rt2x00 driver, although promising, is *not* ready.

[D-Evil (dj-soft)]

Same for me (using pcmcia rt2400 card) - low performance and unable to unload module (for example after card eject).

[Jos Dehaes (jos-dehaes)]

I built the rt2x00 git kernel tree, and used that in combination with network manager. With that combination, suspend/resume works without this unregister_netdev trouble.

You can easily check by issueing the command:
/usr/bin/dbus-send --system --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager --type=method_call \ /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.sleep

followed by
sudo pccardctl eject

this last call locks up the ubuntu kernel with the unregister_netdev problem, while the rt2x00 git kernel does not. I guess the driver has changed quite a bit since (as the rt2x00 developers are very active again) the snapshot in the gutsy kernel. I suggest re-sync'ing with the git tree (but the latest git is not API compatible with the gutsy kernel)

(this problem only arises with the pci/pcmcia version of course)

[Animacide (animacide)]

Is anything ever going to be done about this? This issue is extremely frustrating. Can we have the legacy version built into the kernel instead until the rt2x00 driver is mature?

[Peter Makowski (petermakowski)]

Post your comments here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/134660 -
this is a duplicate!
2007/10/22, Animacide <email address hidden>:
> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 134660 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/134660
>
> Is anything ever going to be done about this? This issue is extremely
> frustrating. Can we have the legacy version built into the kernel
> instead until the rt2x00 driver is mature?
>
> --
> [Gutsy] performance of new rt2500pci driver is poor
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/129719
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug (via bug 134660).
>

--
Regards,
Piotr Makowski