Low eth0 throughput
 

I installed Debian 3.1 r0a i386 a few days ago and am having trouble with low eth0 throughput compared to Mandriva and SuSE installations with the same hardware. I've been unable to find a problem with my configuration but there must be one. The hardware is the KM400 chipset using the via-rhine module. I would appreciate any advice.
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Output of uname.
Linux compuzoo 2.6.8-2-k7 #1 Thu May 19 18:03:29 JST 2005 i686 GNU/Linux
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Summary of ping results from machine with Debian and Mandriva installations through Linksys router to laptop running Mandriva 2005LE.

This is ping data laptop - Debian "Sarge" from Gnome.
131 packets transmitted, 131 received, 0% packet loss, time 130052ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 31.784/560.932/1138.622/477.006 ms, pipe 2
CPU usage peaks at 3% during ping.

This is to laptop - Mandriva 2006 from Gnome
70 packets transmitted, 70 received, 0% packet loss, time 69059ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.837/2.425/90.733/10.710 ms
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As is apparent, Debian is more than 200 time slower.
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Here is the /etc/network/interfaces

[root@compuzoo network]# less interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.64
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.2
# dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if installed
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.2
dns-search charter.net
name Ethernet LAN card
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Here is the output of /etc/hosts
[root@compuzoo etc]# less hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost compuzoo
192.168.1.64 compuzoo.charter.net compuzoo
192.168.1.2 richardlinksys.charter.net richardlinksys
192.168.1.67 laptop.charter.net laptop
192.168.1.66 ibm.charter.net ibm
192.168.1.69 averatec.charter.net averatec

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
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This is the output of mii-tool
Debian:

eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD flow-control, link ok
product info: vendor 00:40:63, model 50 rev 8
basic mode: autonegotiation enabled
basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
advertising: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control
link partner: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control
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Mandriva 2006

eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD flow-control, link ok
product info: vendor 00:40:63, model 50 rev 8
basic mode: autonegotiation enabled
basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
advertising: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control
link partner: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control
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Again, I would appreciate any advice. Thanks

I dont see anything out of the ordinary but I would try forcing the nic to 100baseTx-FD without flow control just to see if that makes a difference.

mii-tool -F 100baseTx-FD eth0

Thanks for the response. Tried that and it actually made it worse. I'm beginning to think it is a buggy via-rhine module.

Yesterday I settled on a ping test just to my router IP, not using the router name and not going beyond the router to another box on my network. With two Mandriva partitions and a SuSE partition I was seeing packet times of .7 msec and Debian 700 msec. I upgraded the Debian kernel image, in spite of the slow, erratic throughput, and then had every other packet at .7 msec and the others at 700 msec.

Following mii-tool -F 100baseTx -FD eth0, I was seeing 200 msec to 1200 msec.

I need to move away from Mandriva and, except for this eth0 problem, I really like what I see in Debian.