network traffic pulsing

Here is some more information:

james@james-laptop:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=8.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=hardy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu hardy (development branch)"

james@james-laptop:~$ sudo lspci -vv
...
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile) (rev 03)
 Subsystem: IBM PRO/1000 MT Mobile Connection
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
 Latency: 64 (63750ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
 Region 0: Memory at c0220000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
 Region 1: Memory at c0200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 Region 2: I/O ports at 8000 [size=64]
 [virtual] Expansion ROM at c0240000 [disabled] [size=64K]
 Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
  Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
  Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=1 PME-
...

james@james-laptop:~$ sudo ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
 Supported ports: [ TP ]
 Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                         100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                         1000baseT/Full
 Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
 Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                         100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                         1000baseT/Full
 Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
 Speed: 1000Mb/s
 Duplex: Full
 Port: Twisted Pair
 PHYAD: 0
 Transceiver: internal
 Auto-negotiation: on
 Supports Wake-on: umbg
 Wake-on: g
 Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
 Link detected: yes

james@james-laptop:~$ sudo lshw -C network
  *-network:0
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile)
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 03
       serial: 00:0d:60:75:a5:00
       size: 1GB/s
       capacity: 1GB/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000 driverversion=7.3.20-k2-NAPI duplex=full firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.113 latency=64 link=yes mingnt=255 module=e1000 multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1GB/s

james@james-laptop:~$ ifconfig
ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:05:4e:48:69:ab
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:515808 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:307201 errors:1 dropped:1 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:380336307 (362.7 MB) TX bytes:23458895 (22.3 MB)

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0d:60:75:a5:00
          inet addr:192.168.1.113 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20d:60ff:fe75:a500/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:5998 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          ...

This person seems to be suffering the same problem:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=638574

The post might offer a fix:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=473966&highlight=slow+gigabit

I shall try compiling the e1000 driver and post the results

okay, compiling the new e1000 driver seemed to do the job, i now get 40mbs, no pulsing, and would get more speed i guess if my other nic card wasn't limited to a mtu of 7000.

See below for more details:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000/

The e1000 version: 7.6.15.4 module should be included in Hardy.

UPDATE:
The previous post did work, and has set my mtu. however i am still experiencing the pulsing and slow speeds.

The screen shot shows what i am talking about:
The high speed activity it over HTTP and the lower speed is over samba (SMB) as you can see both signals are pulsing. Although setting the correct MTU has speed things up it still hasn't solved the pulsing problem. compiling the latest driver doesn't seem to do anything. ignore my post about the updated e1000 driver.

I have tried across three different protocols now. here is a screen shot of NFS. goes slow topping out about 6MB/s

I can confirm this behavior in both gutsy i386 and AMD64 as well as hardy alpha5 i386.

Compiling driver version 7.6.15 seems to fix the pulsing on my setup, although I have a Intel 82566DM-2 which is different than the original poster.

lshw -class network:
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: 82566DM-2 Gigabit Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 19
       bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 02

       size: 1GB/s
       capacity: 1GB/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000 driverversion=7.6.15.4-NAPI duplex=full firmware=1.4-0 latency=0 link=yes module=e1000 multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1GB/s

ifconfig:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet
            Mask:255.255.255.0
           Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:3833 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2077 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:2163120 (2.0 MB) TX bytes:344750 (336.6 KB)

uname -a:
Linux 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Feb 12 02:46:46 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I experiance the same problem as descibed above on an AMD 3200
MB asus K8VSE with 1GB ram. 7.10
I have tested this with the onboard(88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller) and an added (3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone]).
Both give the same problem.
As soon as an other ubuntu machine ( one of three others 2*7.4 +1*7.10 ) starts up in the network I have the problem resulting in a high load. The other machines are old PIII/ PIV (7.4) and dual core laptop(7.10) having less problems with this.
An existing XP machine do not show any sign of this.

Load on amd 3200 with no other machine in the network
load average: 0.22, 0.19, 0.43
Load on amd 3200 with one machine (PIII) started up in the network
load average: 0.93, 0.64, 0.50
The load can be >2 resulting in interupting all the work on AMD. After unplugging the PIII from the network the load drops direct.

Hi Guys,

It unfortunately looks like this bug did not get resolved for Hardy. I'd like to move this bug forward for the upcoming Intrepid cycle. Beginning with the Intrepid Ibex 8.10 development cycle the linux-ubuntu-modules package was merged with the linux kernel source package. Therefore any future bugs that would have been reported against linux-ubuntu-modules should now be reported against just linux. I've gone ahead and opened this report against the linux kernel source package. It would be great if someone can confirm this bug does indeed still exist with the latest Intrepid Alpha release - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . Thanks.

Against 2.6.22 and 2.6.24 this bug will be closed until an appropriate patch to backport can be found as well as it qualifying for a stable release update - http://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates. Thanks.

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

I appears the newer kernel resolves the issue.

I downloaded the LiveCD Alpha5 Intrepid Ibex (x86_64) and could not reproduce the issue.

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.