Distribution: Gentoo Linux 2004.0 Hardware Environment: Pentium III 650 MHz, ASUS P2B-F motherboard, 3Com 905C-TX-M Software Environment: Problem Description: When I switched from kernel 2.4.25 to a 2.6.5 kernel, my network became horribly slow in one direction (uploading to my server). I'm having a 3Com NIC in the server so I'm using the 3c59x driver. With the old kernel I get almost full 100 Mbps throughput during FTP transfers, both downloading from the server and during upload, but with the 2.6.5 kernel I get full bandwidth during download but only around 200-300 kbps during upload. I have seen similiar reports e.g.: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2119 but I don't know what patches SuSE has included i their kernels, because I have never experienced this in a 2.4.x kernel, only in the 2.6 series. Please tell me what more information you need. Steps to reproduce: Compile and install a kernel with the 3c59x driver. Measure the bandwidth on the LAN when uploading and downloading files to this machine.
Additional info: When I replaced my 3Com card with a Netgear (natsemi driver), I realize full bandwidth again if both directions.
I hit the same problem. Symptoms: at 100baseTx-FD (on fully stable network) is transfer speed with 2.6.5 kernel cca 100 kb/s. Kernel 2.4.26 has >1 MB/s at the same conditions. The number of Rx errors and overruns is increasing monotonously, when 3Com card is in 100 MB mode. If forced to 10baseT-FD with mii-tool, everything is ok. again, and speed immediately increases back to >1 MB/s, the increase of errors and overruns stops.Distribution: Gentoo Linux 2004.0, Hw: Athlon XP-3000+, Abit NF7-S 2.0 mainboard, 3Com 905C NIC.
In mail exchange both Peter and Jan report problem solved around 2.6.7, closing.