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ping delay network issue

I've bought a new intel dn2800mt mini-itx board with atom proc and intel e1000e onboard nic and installed slackware32 13.37 just like I did on 2 other PC's.

Any PC on my network I try to ping from the atom PC has strange delays in ping :

Code:

root@riwiatom:~# ping riwilinux

PING riwilinux (192.168.1.3) 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=2.44 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=0.635 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=3 ttl=64 time=0.635 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=4 ttl=64 time=0.629 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=5 ttl=64 time=356 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=6 ttl=64 time=0.272 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=7 ttl=64 time=0.633 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=8 ttl=64 time=0.623 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=9 ttl=64 time=346 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=10 ttl=64 time=0.640 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=11 ttl=64 time=0.101 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=12 ttl=64 time=14.9 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=13 ttl=64 time=125 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=14 ttl=64 time=0.650 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=15 ttl=64 time=0.626 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=16 ttl=64 time=4.02 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=17 ttl=64 time=264 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=18 ttl=64 time=0.635 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=19 ttl=64 time=296 ms

When I tcpdump on the destination PC I see that the received icmp request is answered without delay (ie always < 1ms)
I have swapped network cables.
Both PCs connect to the same switch. I also tried a different switch.
I updated the e1000e driver on the atom PC from 1.2.7-k2 to 2.0.0.1.
I recompiled the kernel for Atom processor and included the e1000e driver in the kernel now.

Yesterday I booted with a Live CD "backtrack5 linux" Ubuntu based and then the ping problem is gone.
This leads me to believe that it must be some slackware/driver issue

What could this be?

Do you have linux-firmware installed? It provides a bunch of binary blobs for network cards and such.

Alex Brinister

Quote:

Originally Posted by abrinister (Post 4763680)

Do you have linux-firmware installed? It provides a bunch of binary blobs for network cards and such.

Alex Brinister

Thanks, I'll check that out.
I also noticed that the backtrack-linux cd has a newer kernel than I am running with on my stock 13.37 (2.6.37.6)
Maybe I should try to upgrade to slackware-current. I have always run with 'released' slackware versions without updating much inbetween major releases.

Yeah that kernel is pretty old. I'm running Arch and my kernel is version 3.4.9. Kernel updates usually help when it comes to drivers.

Alex Brinister

Quote:

Originally Posted by riwi (Post 4764172)

I've upgrade to slackware32 14.0. So now I am running 3.2.29

Linux riwiatom 3.2.29-smp #1 SMP Mon Sep 17 13:02:10 CDT 2012 i686 Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N2800 @ 1.86GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Unfortunately not a complete solution but I do see improvement.
No ping delay varies between 0.600 ms (mostly) to 5-15 ms occasionally
So not as bad as before.

Code:

root@riwiatom:# ping riwilinux

PING riwilinux (192.168.1.3) 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=1.78 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=0.732 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=3 ttl=64 time=6.77 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=4 ttl=64 time=9.50 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=5 ttl=64 time=6.47 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=6 ttl=64 time=0.673 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=7 ttl=64 time=12.3 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=8 ttl=64 time=0.700 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=9 ttl=64 time=0.801 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=10 ttl=64 time=0.693 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=11 ttl=64 time=3.65 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=12 ttl=64 time=9.02 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=13 ttl=64 time=4.67 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=14 ttl=64 time=4.04 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=15 ttl=64 time=0.701 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=16 ttl=64 time=0.666 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=17 ttl=64 time=2.64 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=18 ttl=64 time=1.12 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=19 ttl=64 time=0.692 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=20 ttl=64 time=0.680 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=21 ttl=64 time=0.691 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=22 ttl=64 time=3.99 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=23 ttl=64 time=0.696 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=24 ttl=64 time=0.684 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=25 ttl=64 time=2.72 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=26 ttl=64 time=5.69 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=27 ttl=64 time=5.61 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=28 ttl=64 time=0.681 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=29 ttl=64 time=0.697 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=30 ttl=64 time=3.17 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=31 ttl=64 time=10.9 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=32 ttl=64 time=0.667 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=33 ttl=64 time=0.672 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=34 ttl=64 time=0.717 ms

64 bytes from riwilinux (192.168.1.3): icmp_req=35 ttl=64 time=4.49 ms

I have tried the huge and the generic kernel

intel e1000e driver :
root@riwiatom:# ethtool -i eth0
driver: e1000e
version: 1.5.1-k
firmware-version: 2.1-2
bus-info: 0000:01:00.0

Maybe it is something external. But I can't explain why ping is stable < 1ms when I boot with some other distro from a stick and not with slack13.37 or slack14.0