Arch Linux

strugee

Member

Registered: 2013-07-11

Posts: 15

Website

Unbearably slow network on mid-2010 iMac (Qualcomm Atheros AR928X)

(Note: posting in Kernel & Hardware, since presumably this is a hardware/firmware issue. But feel free to move to Networking, Server and Protection.)

Hi,

I've been running Arch for a couple years now. Everything works super smoothly. However, for a really long time (possibly since I first installed?), my network connection on this particular machine has been astonishingly slow - about 100 kb/s on good days. I've tried a bunch of tweaks from the wiki that are supposed to help (although I can't remember what they were, since it was a while ago), plus Googling. All with no luck.

Here are some details about my system:

% lspci | grep Net
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
03:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

% uname -a
Linux null-ptr-exception 4.1.13-1-lts #1 SMP Tue Nov 10 09:48:15 CET 2015 x86_64 GNU/Linux

% NetworkManager --version
1.0.8

% gnome-shell --version
GNOME Shell 3.18.3

% wpa_supplicant -v       
wpa_supplicant v2.5
Copyright (c) 2003-2015, Jouni Malinen <j@w1.fi> and contributors

I do not have b43-fwcutter installed.

I'm on a 21.5-inch mid-2010 iMac. My Arch isn't fully up-to-date, but this has been going on for a long, long time and I doubt that upgrading would do anything to help. The issue is definitely related to the wireless in Arch, because this issue doesn't happen on any other device in the house, including the OS X partition of this same computer. It also happens even if I switch wireless networks.

Does anyone have any idea what else I can do? I'd be happy to provide additional details about my system.

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: Unbearably slow network on mid-2010 iMac (Qualcomm Atheros AR928X)

My Arch isn't fully up-to-date, but this has been going on for a long, long time and I doubt that upgrading would do anything to help.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … nsupported

---

Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

strugee

Member

Registered: 2013-07-11

Posts: 15

Website

Re: Unbearably slow network on mid-2010 iMac (Qualcomm Atheros AR928X)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … nsupported

I'm aware. I don't have the latest versions of most packages on my system. That doesn't mean I have a partial upgrade. Or in other words: the set of packages that are currently on my system were, at one point, fully up-to-date. However, since some time has gone by, they aren't anymore.

Also, your link is wrong. You want https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … nsupported.

jakehurst

Member

From: Seattle, WA

Registered: 2023-06-13

Posts: 1

Re: Unbearably slow network on mid-2010 iMac (Qualcomm Atheros AR928X)

Hi! I'm doing research into getting my iMac (iMac11,3) that has these same networking components out of storage and into a useful state to host some services.

I've noticed with newer Linux kernels that the wireless seems to be fast enough that I'm not noticing any sort of slowdown. I'll keep an eye on it though.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,194

Re: Unbearably slow network on mid-2010 iMac (Qualcomm Atheros AR928X)

Note that you are bumping an 8 year old thread, chances are they are still looking for that same solution (and or that the driver situation has likely bettered in the meantime) are quite slim, don't necrobump.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … bumping%22

Closing this old thread.