[2.6.16-gitX] heavy performance regression in ipw2200 wireless driver

[Alessandro Suardi]

Driver - or firmware ? Don't know - since the new git snapshots run
 1.1.1 which requires newer firmware from http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net.

Symptom -> my new FC5 partition with 2.6.16-git kernels connects via
 VNC viewer to my bittorrent box over wireless (ipw2200 to a D-Link
 G604T router/AP); Dell D610 runs FC5, BT box is a K7-800 running
 FC3 with a 2.6.16-rc5-git8 kernel (15+ days uptime...).

I also run Firefox on the bittorrent box; noticed today (2.6.16-git5) that
 the screen refresh of pages with images was from time to time very
 slow (close to unusable).

Rebooted into my FC4 partition with a 2.6.16 kernel, everything much
 snappier. So I ran a scp test from my BT server to the laptop, three
 times in a row the same file - a 38MB .flac with the laptop in the same
 physical position (ie, no signal variation). Results...

FC5 - 2.6.16-git3:

[asuardi@donkey melua_2004-09-23_Berlin]$ scp KM_9-23-04_17_The\
Closest\ Thing\ to\ Crazy.flac 192.168.1.8:/tmp
asuardi@xxxxxxxxxxx's password:
KM_9-23-04_17_The Closest Thing to Crazy.flac 100%   38MB 971.3KB/s   00:40
[asuardi@donkey melua_2004-09-23_Berlin]$ scp KM_9-23-04_17_The\
Closest\ Thing\ to\ Crazy.flac 192.168.1.8:/tmp
asuardi@xxxxxxxxxxx's password:
KM_9-23-04_17_The Closest Thing to Crazy.flac 100%   38MB   1.3MB/s   00:29
[asuardi@donkey melua_2004-09-23_Berlin]$ scp KM_9-23-04_17_The\
Closest\ Thing\ to\ Crazy.flac 192.168.1.8:/tmp
asuardi@xxxxxxxxxxx's password:
KM_9-23-04_17_The Closest Thing to Crazy.flac 100%   38MB 626.7KB/s   01:02


FC4 - 2.6.16:

[asuardi@donkey melua_2004-09-23_Berlin]$ scp KM_9-23-04_17_The\
Closest\ Thing\ to\ Crazy.flac 192.168.1.8:/tmp
asuardi@xxxxxxxxxxx's password:
KM_9-23-04_17_The Closest Thing to Crazy.flac 100%   38MB   1.5MB/s   00:25
[asuardi@donkey melua_2004-09-23_Berlin]$ scp KM_9-23-04_17_The\
Closest\ Thing\ to\ Crazy.flac 192.168.1.8:/tmp
asuardi@xxxxxxxxxxx's password:
KM_9-23-04_17_The Closest Thing to Crazy.flac 100%   38MB   1.7MB/s   00:23
[asuardi@donkey melua_2004-09-23_Berlin]$ scp KM_9-23-04_17_The\
Closest\ Thing\ to\ Crazy.flac 192.168.1.8:/tmp
asuardi@xxxxxxxxxxx's password:
KM_9-23-04_17_The Closest Thing to Crazy.flac 100%   38MB   1.7MB/s   00:22

Bottom line - old driver has better performance than the new one,
 but most noticeably delivers consistent performance.

I will be available for testing starting Thursday 30th as I'll be on
 the road since then. Of course if the problem is identified and
 fixed earlier, I won't cry ;)


Thanks,

--alessandro

 "Dreamer ? Each one of us is a dreamer. We just push it down deep because
   we are repeatedly told that we are not allowed to dream in real life"
     (Reinhold Ziegler)
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