Solved - trying to get my UGreen 2.5GB Ethernet adapter to work at speeds over 1GB

[Rob Latour]

I am running the current version of Armbian (and Open Media Vault) on a Raspberry Pi 5.

 

Attached to it is a 2.5GB Ethernet adapter - this one in particular:  https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CD1FDKT1

 

It lists as having a speed of 2500Mb/s but doesn't in practice:

 

sudo ethtool enx6c1ff7045a00
Settings for enx6c1ff7045a00:
        Supported ports: [ TP    MII ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
                                2500baseT/Full
        Supported pause frame use: No
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Supported FEC modes: Not reported
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
                                2500baseT/Full
        Advertised pause frame use: No
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
        Link partner advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                             100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                             1000baseT/Full
                                             2500baseT/Full
        Link partner advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
        Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Link partner advertised FEC modes: Not reported
        Speed: 2500Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Port: MII
        PHYAD: 32
        Transceiver: internal
        Supports Wake-on: pumbg
        Wake-on: g
        Current message level: 0x00007fff (32767)
                               drv probe link timer ifdown ifup rx_err tx_err tx_queued intr tx_done rx_status pktdata hw wol
        Link detected: yes

 

However, I am getting less than 1GB data transfer speeds (tested with iPerf3)

 

Accepted connection from 192.168.4.4, port 53760
[  5] local 192.168.1.10 port 5201 connected to 192.168.4.4 port 53766
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.01   sec  63.6 MBytes   529 Mbits/sec
[  5]   1.01-2.00   sec  63.5 MBytes   537 Mbits/sec
[  5]   2.00-3.01   sec  64.2 MBytes   536 Mbits/sec
[  5]   3.01-4.01   sec  63.6 MBytes   531 Mbits/sec
[  5]   4.01-5.02   sec  63.6 MBytes   532 Mbits/sec
[  5]   5.02-6.01   sec  63.0 MBytes   529 Mbits/sec
[  5]   6.01-7.01   sec  62.1 MBytes   521 Mbits/sec
[  5]   7.01-8.01   sec  63.8 MBytes   535 Mbits/sec
[  5]   8.01-9.01   sec  62.5 MBytes   527 Mbits/sec
[  5]   9.01-10.01  sec  63.8 MBytes   536 Mbits/sec
[  5]  10.01-10.01  sec   128 KBytes   466 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.01  sec   634 MBytes   531 Mbits/sec                  receiver

 

(however, with another computer I get 2.5GB speed with the same iPerf3 server as was used for the above tests).

 

The odd thing is that I believe last week I was getting much higher transfer speeds.  I have done sudo updates, upgrades, dist-upgrades and OMV updates since then however.

 

Suggestions on where to look, what to do to resolve would be appreciated. 

 

Edit: I tried replacing  /etc/udev/rules.d/50-usb-realtek-net.rules  with the contents of https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wget/realtek-r8152-linux/master/50-usb-realtek-net.rules and rebooting - but that did not help

 

Edit 2: well that took me all day.  I use OPNSense and had turned on Intrusion Detection with many rules.  Seems as if it really bogged down the network traffic.  I disabled it for testing and then suddenly I could get the expected though-put.

 

Server listening on 5201 (test #20)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Accepted connection from 192.168.4.4, port 33826
[  5] local 192.168.1.10 port 5201 connected to 192.168.4.4 port 33832
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.01   sec   279 MBytes  2.32 Gbits/sec
[  5]   1.01-2.00   sec   276 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec
[  5]   2.00-3.01   sec   280 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec
[  5]   3.01-4.01   sec   279 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec
[  5]   4.01-5.01   sec   275 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec
[  5]   5.01-6.00   sec   276 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec
[  5]   6.00-7.01   sec   280 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec
[  5]   7.01-8.00   sec   275 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec
[  5]   8.00-9.01   sec   280 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec
[  5]   9.01-10.00  sec   276 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.71 GBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec                  receiver

 

Hope this will be of help to others.

Edited August 2 by Rob Latour
update info on things I've tried