Arch Linux

jerbear64

Member

Registered: 2016-01-20

Posts: 10

[SOLVED] Internet upload speed sometimes very slow, fixed after reboot

SOLVED.

To fix the issue, the driver must be unloaded and reloaded. It's not the most ideal of solutions, and it is temporary, but it works.

I wrote a script to do all of this automatically, which is better than my old solution of rebooting.
Here's what to do:
Stop the current netctl profile

netctl stop-all

Unload the driver:

sudo modprobe -rfv rt2800pci

Reload the driver:

sudo modprobe -v rt2800pci

Start the netctl profile again:

netctl start (name of profile)

Doing this will solve the issue for another couple of days, until the process must be followed again. I highly recommend just writing a shell script to do this, like I did. Just one command, it asks for sudo and does the job in maybe 20 seconds. Much faster, and more ideal, than a reboot.

I'm having a weird issue where my internet upload speed (connected through wifi using netctl) will occasionally go to a very slow speed. This issue fixes itself at a reboot. Usually I get around 20 up, but when this issue happens speedtest doesn't even register the upload speed at all- doesn't display a thing. Uploading files to google drive/dropbox doesn't work either, the file upload time keeps going up and up and up, with very little progress made. Ping on speedtest also goes from around 15 to 250. Download speed seems untouched (hovers around 70 to 100Mbps, as it always has)

This is usually predictable- a few hours before this happens dmesg will be spammed with

ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00queue_flush_queue: Warning - Queue 2 failed to flush

I am using an Edimax EW-7128Gn as my wireless card.

Here's some information about the card from lspci:

04:06.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT3060 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R
Subsystem: Edimax Computer Co. Device 7711
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64 (500ns min, 1000ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 21
NUMA node: 0
Region 0: Memory at febf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci
Kernel modules: rt2800pci

Is there any way of fixing this? An alternate driver or something? I'm on the latest stable kernel (4.5.1-1-ARCH as of this post)

Things that I've tried-
* switching PCI slots
* turning off power management for the PCI card
* disconnecting and reconnecting to the wifi (netctl stop-all/netctl start the profile)

Worst case scenario, I suppose I can order a PCIe Wifi card, but that's a last resort.

Last edited by jerbear64 (2016-05-09 20:58:32)

JohnBobSmith

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2014-11-29

Posts: 804

Re: [SOLVED] Internet upload speed sometimes very slow, fixed after reboot

Ralink cards have given a lot of people (myself included) a lot of grief. I find it odd but not all that unusual that the rt2800pci is powering your card. That driver is the same one I use for my RT3290 as oppose to the RT3060. The interesting thing here is you have  a (hopefully) troubleshootable/fixable error, the flush warnings. It will take a bit of google searching as far as I'm concerned (not going to plug my rt3290 back in to my laptop because I am running wires now) but here might be a start: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=169956

Otherwise, what network manager are you using, if any? If you are using a NM, try doing a pure CLI connect and log any errors/etc. Iwconfig should work for that.

EDIT: Speaking of absolute last resorts, you might want to try this first. For my wired setup I have these fancy little things called power line adapters installed. Simply take one ehternet cord and plug into the router, then into the powerline adapter, and finally plug the adapter into the wall. Now go into any room in your house, plug a second device into the wall, then an ethernet cord into it, and finish at your laptop/device. You now have wired internet! I had no idea you could carry an internet connection through home wiring like that. Anyhow, just a thought for ya.

Last edited by JohnBobSmith (2016-05-03 14:40:24)

---

I am diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As it turns out, what I thought was my greatest weakness is now my greatest strength.

Everyday, I make a conscious choice to overcome my challenges and my problems. It's not easy, but its better than the alternative...

jerbear64

Member

Registered: 2016-01-20

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Internet upload speed sometimes very slow, fixed after reboot

I'm just using netctl, no special network manager. wifi-menu doesn't spit out any errors, it just connects.

I woke up this morning and checked dmesg, and it looks like the errors are back after yesterday morning's reboot.

I looked on the Arch Wiki and it mentioned there's a special driver for the RT3090, but I haven't been able to find anything specific for the RT3060.

EDIT: Just saw your edit

I've seen powerline adapters before, and I've actually been meaning to grab a pair (on my parents' computer, which is wired in to Ethernet, we get 150 Mbps, much better than my 70ish over wifi, so I wanted to eliminate that bottleneck) but they're a bit expensive and I just spent quite a bit on a GTX 970.

If I had to, I'd buy powerline adapters first before buying another wifi card. I'd need a couple more Ethernet cables, though, but those aren't too expensive.

Last edited by jerbear64 (2016-05-03 14:55:30)

JohnBobSmith

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2014-11-29

Posts: 804

Re: [SOLVED] Internet upload speed sometimes very slow, fixed after reboot

For sure. If you can save up a bit for the powerline adaptors, those are the way to go. Ralink is known to have, well, bad performance/*nix support all around. I *always* had issues with my chip, even if only occasionally. No fix was permanent. I finally had enough after getting huge lag constantly. Random 500ms+ spikes due to a bad card when gaming is unacceptable. For me in Canada my setup was ~$80 CAD, including cords and what not. But it was way worth it

Best of luck with whatever you decide!

---

I am diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As it turns out, what I thought was my greatest weakness is now my greatest strength.

Everyday, I make a conscious choice to overcome my challenges and my problems. It's not easy, but its better than the alternative...

jerbear64

Member

Registered: 2016-01-20

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Internet upload speed sometimes very slow, fixed after reboot

I'm one step closer to fixing it.

I found out that an alternate driver indeed DOES exist- rt3562sta. When I get home in an hour or so I'll install it, blacklist rt2800pci, and we'll see how it goes.

jerbear64

Member

Registered: 2016-01-20

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Internet upload speed sometimes very slow, fixed after reboot

Okay, perfect. The rt3562sta driver is installed, and the rt2800pci driver has been blacklisted.

After a reboot, I did have to go in to wifi-menu again and reconfigure the network- instead of wlpXsX it seems like this driver is recognized as enpXsX. en for ethernet, maybe? Either way, I'm not complaining- it works.

I'm marking this topic as solved for now, if no issues crop up then I'll keep it as such.

Potentially solved.

jerbear64

Member

Registered: 2016-01-20

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Internet upload speed sometimes very slow, fixed after reboot

...never mind.

Still getting issues. However, the rt3562sta driver seems to be printing out some more verbose errors in dmesg:

ACT-BuildIntolerantChannelRep(Size=0)
ERROR!!! BBP(viaMCU=1) read R3 fail
ACT - Update2040CoexistFrameAndNotify. BSSCoexist2040 = 1. EventANo = 0. 

Also, instead of just the upload/ping going down, it looks like download now does, too.

I also noticed that once I plugged in and unplugged a wireless USB adapter it seems to be working normally now. Strange.

EDIT: and it's back to being stupid. I'm only getting 0.2 up.

I might have to find my old wmp54g and call it quits.

EDIT 2: Well that won't work either, the wmp54g is also ralink. Lovely. I haven't put it in but i don't necessarily want to.

Last edited by jerbear64 (2016-05-04 00:58:27)

jerbear64

Member

Registered: 2016-01-20

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Internet upload speed sometimes very slow, fixed after reboot

Strangely enough, it appears that reloading the driver works. I'm not marking as solved until either this doesn't happen again or it happens, but reloading the driver works once more (since I removed the rt3562sta driver due to slower speeds, it could've been either that or the modprobe that fixed it)

Here's what to do:

Stop the current netctl profile

netctl stop-all

Unload the driver:

sudo modprobe -rfv rt2800pci

Reload the driver:

sudo modprobe -v rt2800pci

Start the netctl profile again

netctl start (name of profile)