EtherUSB upload speed

The change to EtherUSB 0.29 has worked wonderfully on the Pi, as described. However on the Pandaboard (with RISC OS 5.21 18-Sep-2014 and EtherUSB 0.29) my HD read is 5.2Mbyte/s but HD write is only 0.3Mbyte/s (to a NAS over LANMAN98).

Read and write speed to/from the SD card is, as you would expect, almost as fast as Iyonix at 21.4Mbyte/s read and 18.2Mbyte/s write.

Hmmm odd. I would have expected Chris Evans of CJE to have mentioned any problems with the pandaboard.

Do you have any problems with writing to the pi from the pandaboard using sharefs?

Presumably the performance was ok before the change.

I’d be interested if anyone can confirm the problem.

The slow upload speed (prior to EtherUSB 0.29) on the Pi has been well reported. The update to EtherUSB 0.29 made a huge improvement on the Pi. Unfortunately it has made a large difference in the other direction on the Pandaboard:
EtherUSB 0.26 read 5.3 Mbyte/s write 6.8 Mbyte/s
EtherUSB 0.29 read 5.2 Mbyte/s write 0.277 Mbyte/s
(these figures are for read/write to NAS using LANMan98)

So are there any problems with writing to the pi over sharefs with your pandaboard?

If you have a laptop can you write to that ok via Lanman98?

Does using LanMan that comes with riscos make any difference?

I’m just trying to find out if the problem is peculiar to the lanman98 to NAS connection.

I can use lanman98 ok from an iyonix, pi, and beagleboard to my laptop – though the beagle board is an external adapter.

If you have an external USB adapter does that work? – it may be a peculiarity of the EtherUSB device.

It looks as if Chris has given like for like comparisons between EtherUSB 0.26 and 0.29, with 0.29 showing a huge slow-down while other things are equal. I’d be interested to know how the slow-down could be LanMan98’s fault under those circumstances.

I am having difficulty using sharefs with my main Windows PC (I think because the two computers are on different sub-rings of the network) as sharefs on the panda can’t see the Public directory in VRPC on the Windows PC. I can use sharefs to my Iyonix, that gives read 1.9Mbyte/s and write 2.1Mbyte/s. Can’t use sharefs on the pi for the SD card – the option is greyed out. Can’t see the portable (another, differently named, Pubic directory in VRPC) from the panda either.

Using LanManFS I get read 2.3Mbyte/s and write 2.8Mbyte/s (to/from the NAS) but start up LanMan98 and use that and write speed is back down to 0.3Mbyte/s and this slower speed now applies whether I use LanManFS or LanMan98 (I have both filer windows open).

I don’t think it is a fault with LanMan98. In the absence of a pandaboard I can’t test things so I ask things that come into my head to try and find a pattern :-). Other programs seem to work ok (netsurf for example). I suspect a problem with udp transmission which is why I asked for the sharefs test.

It’s a shame I can’t reproduce the problem here. I’d have had a go at fixing it.

Go to the command line and type:

share sdfs::0

The filer option remains greyed-out but the SDcard 0 ‘drive’ now appears in sharefs as normal.

Ralph

So it looks like a problem with high speed writes.

I’m not bothered about getting sharefs working on the PC but can you use LanMan98 to access the PC? It may be slower than the NAS and I’d be interested to know if a slower lanman98 connection worked.

From the Pi, with the latest (30 Aug 2014) updates to the rom (EtherUSB 0.29), I get the following:

LanManFS    R: 1.3  W: 1.6  (to NAS)     
LanMan98    R: 2.7 W: 2.4 (to NAS)
LanManFS   R: 1.3  W:  1.6 (to NAS)
 (after LanMan98 starts)
ShareFS  R: 0.5  W: 1.6 (to PC)
(all Mbyte/s)

From the PC (VRPC running RISC OS 4.39) and with share sdfs on the Pi:

HostFS R: 7.0  W: 10.6 (to NAS)
SHareFS R: 0.6 W: 0.7 (to Pi)

But it was the Pandaboard where I had the issue.

But it was the Pandaboard where I had the issue

Yes I wanted to try writes from your pandaboard to other machines other than the NAS so I was wondering as you have a pi if you could write to that from your pandaboard without problems.

I presume the sharefs on the PC is to virtual rpc if so does

*sharefswindow 1

on your virtual rpc fix the poor sharefs read speed in your last test?

if you could write to that from your pandaboard without problems.

No, from the pandaboard, I can’t see ‘RISCOSpi’ in the ‘Resources.$.Discs’ window.

I presume the sharefs on the PC is to virtual rpc if so does

No it is from VRPC

I see you’ve added to your last reply :-) by last test I mean pi to PC

sharefswindow 1 makes no difference – still 0.5 / 1.6

I can’t see ‘RISCOSpi’ in the ‘Resources.$.Discs’ window

do a

*sharefswindow 1

on the pi as well.

There were no changes to reading so the slow reads are a different puzzle.

I have done sharefswindow 1 on the pi, but still can’t see ‘RISCOSpi’ on the pandaboard (can see it on the pi [looking at itself] and on the pc but it’s made no difference on the panda).

Well not much good news from that list of tests. Seems nothing works well.

I have just tried my PandaRO<→Iyonix with EtherUSB 0.29 on the PandaRO, using ShareFS. The transfer speed was around 2.1 MB/s in both directions.

I would have to fire up the Bubba to test with LanMan98.

Same for me. But write speed to NAS is slow from Pandaboard (since 0.29) fine before.

Colin: Sorry we’ve not had a chance to try EtherUSB 0.29 on a PandaBoard system. Other RISC OS work is keeping us extremely busy.

LanMan98 can be eliminated as a factor by testing with ShareFS

Have just fired up the RaspberryPi (running last nights ROM).

On Rpi using ShareFS: Pi to PandaRO ca. 1.2MB, Pi from PandaRO ca. 1.2MB.

On PandaRO: Pull from Pi ca. 2.2MB, push to RPi ca. 0.8MB.

I think the slow speed in the last case is due to SDFS on the Pi – it always has significant pauses while writing large files.

It is close to teatime here, but I could fire up the Bubba later to use LanMan98.

The slow upload speed from Panda cannot be the SDFS as it is slow, using LanMan98, to a 12Tbyte fast NAS.

The slow upload speed from Panda cannot be the SDFS as it is slow

I do not have a fast SSD attached to the Pi at the moment. However, my experience with both the BB and PRo is that writing to a (fast) SD card on SDFS is much slower that to a Fat32 formatted SSD, and is characterised by significant pauses when writing.

I will connect a hub and Fat32 SSD to the Pi tomorrow and repeat the tests.

OK. I have now done some transfer tests between PandaRO and RaspberryPi over ShareFS. On the PandaRO the storage medium was a Fat32 SSD, while on the RaspberryPi I used a large RAM disc to eliminate the SDFS drive.

Results are as follows.

1) Using the Pi as ‘master’.
Pull from PandaRO – 2.3 MB/s
Push to PandaRO – 1.4 MB/s

2) Using the PandaRO as ‘master’.
Pull from Pi – 2.3 MB/s
Push to Pi – 2.3 MB/s

There doesn’t seem to be any slow down on the PandaRO.

I guess the last test will be to and from the Bubba (perhaps later today)