Pandora Wi-Fi On 350kilobytes/s

[paddy]

Hi Ed

my psp is around four times faster than the pandora,i messure my speed by downloading files from my fav rom site and also pnd files downloaded from OPT servers ,i also usualy download these files on my pc as it is easy to rack up a few downloads and other files together from my pc and then transfer them onto my sd then put my sd back on in pandora ,on my pc i can download these same files much faster than the pandora.


avg free edition ,download.com 800mhz 52kbs/68kbs this is the typical download speed i get on my pandora
i am one metre away from my router ,and the only other device connected to my network is my pc ,cabled connection.

downloaded the same file with my desktop pc ,482kbs i think it could have been faster but the file is small so there was no time for the speed to level out.

i also downloaded the same file with my psp ,it took nearly 3 seconds to download the file ,i can't tell you the transfer rate as psp doesn't tell you when downloading a file but it was lightning fast ,much much faster than the pandora.



ok tested at 500mhz after a reboot and i am getting nearly 200kbs ,then i try another file from download.com and get between 140kbs/190kbs ,i overclocked to 800mhz agai to see if mabe overclocking was a problem but still getting around 150/190kbs ,i don't know now ,seems mabe rebooting and then downloading a file is better as there are less system resources used at this point.

never goes over 200kbs but i am not complaining with this speed ,it's just usualy i am only getting 60/110kbs.


top speed is around 240kbs ,doing more tests so not bad at all ,just don't understand why i usualy get low speeds but now it's really not bad ?
not consistant but for now this seems ok ,its still not faster than my psp or desktop but its ok ,are there possible wifi issues with the pandora wifi module driver ? anyway i would stil like others to test their speed.

 

[PokeParadox]

I have noticed that the Pand's connection seems to slow down over time. I tried to SFTP an updated pnd over to test and it was going at 8kB!
I restarted and it went to 50kB.

I was replacing a file so perhaps deleting the exisiting file and writing the new added some slowdown due to SD access... I know I've had decent speed just doing browsing and downloads on the browser.

 

[EvilDragon]

SD Write access is slow at the moment because it's mounted with Sync option.

We are thinking of including more configuration options where the user can also switch to non-sync mode. That speeds up the writing speed A LOT, however, if you remove the card a second after writing to it, that writing is lost.
If you shut it down properly or sync it, you're fine.

 

[levi1123]

I presume the Pandora can run ftp file gets in terminal? Will do so once i get mine and let you guys know what i get.

 

[Hochler]

SD Write access is slow at the moment because it's mounted with Sync option.

We are thinking of including more configuration options where the user can also switch to non-sync mode. That speeds up the writing speed A LOT, however, if you remove the card a second after writing to it, that writing is lost.
If you shut it down properly or sync it, you're fine.

Maybe there could be a "Safely Unmount All Removable Disks" shortcut/button for those that choose to disable sync?

 

[EvilDragon]

SD Write access is slow at the moment because it's mounted with Sync option.

We are thinking of including more configuration options where the user can also switch to non-sync mode. That speeds up the writing speed A LOT, however, if you remove the card a second after writing to it, that writing is lost.
If you shut it down properly or sync it, you're fine.

Maybe there could be a "Safely Unmount All Removable Disks" shortcut/button for those that choose to disable sync?

Yep, that should work. However, currently we have a problem of unmounting. Something is clinging to the mounts

 

[fusion_power]

Yep, that should work. However, currently we have a problem of unmounting. Something is clinging to the mounts

does that mean, even when you unmount with an "unmount-option" (if this already exists) the SD is not correctly unmounted?

 

[mindlord]

It means the filesystem syncs, but the can't be cleanly unmounted. I would think that libPND is touching the SD cards and usb drives pretty much constantly, and as long as a program is trying to access a drive, the Kernel can't issue an unmount. It's fine as long as nothing is being written at the time you remove the card or whatever.

 

[fusion_power]

It means the filesystem syncs, but the can't be cleanly unmounted. I would think that libPND is touching the SD cards and usb drives pretty much constantly, and as long as a program is trying to access a drive, the Kernel can't issue an unmount. It's fine as long as nothing is being written at the time you remove the card or whatever.

The Pandora is not the first Linux Device with SD cards. So how do other (mobile) devices solve this issue? I hope at the end it will be an easy fix and no permanent HW-design issue.

 

[WizardStan]

The Pandora is not the first Linux Device with SD cards. So how do other (mobile) devices solve this issue? I hope at the end it will be an easy fix and no permanent HW-design issue.

They handle it by not having a daemon that listens for updates on the SD card for PND files

 

[fahrstuhl]

The Pandora is not the first Linux Device with SD cards. So how do other (mobile) devices solve this issue? I hope at the end it will be an easy fix and no permanent HW-design issue.

They handle it by not having a daemon that listens for updates on the SD card for PND files

A possible solution would be using an udev-rule (does the Pandora use udev?) triggered on insertion, although that would prevent live-updates... cron? Also wouldn't be live, though

Disabling the daemon with unmounting! (Wow, I bet nobody else ever came up with this! I am so smart! S-M-R-T!)

 

[htl2001]

Also, how did you do the speed tests? There are multiple ways of testing speed and they will all lead to different results.

Maybe your WiFi signal is a bit weak where you try to use the Pandora? A desktop PC, XBox360, Wii, etc. are WAY bigger and therefore have bigger and better antennas. You can't do that on such a small device, therefore, the signal strength will ALWAYS be a bit weaker.

Don't forget to factor in router quality either. Test max speed on a laptop to compare to make sure that's not the issue (I've had far too many cases of people complaining that wireless wasn't working right on their computer only to find it was really the router's fault)

 

[hobbyman II]

you should probably be able to check for what is locking the drive with something like

lsof | grep '/mnt/SD1' | grep -v grep

or something like that, or just plod through all the applications listed in top and shut em down one by one until you find the one that allows the drive to unmount, easy fix once someone gets on it, still waiting on my Pandora though, so can't help :huh: , will be a while yet too (1100[sub]ish[/sub] (to go) and counting)

 

[Prometheus]

Also, how did you do the speed tests? There are multiple ways of testing speed and they will all lead to different results.

Maybe your WiFi signal is a bit weak where you try to use the Pandora? A desktop PC, XBox360, Wii, etc. are WAY bigger and therefore have bigger and better antennas. You can't do that on such a small device, therefore, the signal strength will ALWAYS be a bit weaker.

Don't forget to factor in router quality either. Test max speed on a laptop to compare to make sure that's not the issue (I've had far too many cases of people complaining that wireless wasn't working right on their computer only to find it was really the router's fault)

I must also mention, if I may, that broadband providers in the UK are allowed to advertise their speeds with the disclaimer of "up to", when many customers never get what is advertised. It's possible that paddy may not actually really be getting 10Mb/sec on the line, even if it was advertised as that.

 

[gibberish]

On my desktop pc i can download at 2400kB/s (kiloBYTES), but I am yet to download anything at all using my Pandora due to those pesky "ration something or other" errors in Arora. What am I supposed to be using to download on Pandora..?

 

[PokeParadox]

On my desktop pc i can download at 2400kB/s (kiloBYTES), but I am yet to download anything at all using my Pandora due to those pesky "ration something or other" errors in Arora. What am I supposed to be using to download on Pandora..?

I seem to remember that I was having errors downloading PNDs until I went into arora's menu and changed the default download location to "Always ask me"

 

[levi1123]

Also, how did you do the speed tests? There are multiple ways of testing speed and they will all lead to different results.

Maybe your WiFi signal is a bit weak where you try to use the Pandora? A desktop PC, XBox360, Wii, etc. are WAY bigger and therefore have bigger and better antennas. You can't do that on such a small device, therefore, the signal strength will ALWAYS be a bit weaker.

Don't forget to factor in router quality either. Test max speed on a laptop to compare to make sure that's not the issue (I've had far too many cases of people complaining that wireless wasn't working right on their computer only to find it was really the router's fault)

I must also mention, if I may, that broadband providers in the UK are allowed to advertise their speeds with the disclaimer of "up to", when many customers never get what is advertised. It's possible that paddy may not actually really be getting 10Mb/sec on the line, even if it was advertised as that.

We do that in the USA too ( i work for mine ) =P

 

[cz_jc]

SD Write access is slow at the moment because it's mounted with Sync option.

We are thinking of including more configuration options where the user can also switch to non-sync mode. That speeds up the writing speed A LOT, however, if you remove the card a second after writing to it, that writing is lost.
If you shut it down properly or sync it, you're fine.

Couldn't it be that the wifi speed is actually limited by SD write speed? Could anyone please try mounting tmpfs on pandora (mount -t tmpfs none /tmp/someplace) and wgeting a file inside of it ? Also, please do iwconfig <card> power off (disable power saving)

 

[Monk]

Maybe your WiFi signal is a bit weak where you try to use the Pandora? A desktop PC, XBox360, Wii, etc. are WAY bigger and therefore have bigger and better antennas. You can't do that on such a small device, therefore, the signal strength will ALWAYS be a bit weaker.

I thought you guys reported that a notebook in The Hall got no signal, but a mighty Pandora got a signal, could connect and browse?

 

[PokeParadox]

Maybe your WiFi signal is a bit weak where you try to use the Pandora? A desktop PC, XBox360, Wii, etc. are WAY bigger and therefore have bigger and better antennas. You can't do that on such a small device, therefore, the signal strength will ALWAYS be a bit weaker.

I thought you guys reported that a notebook in The Hall got no signal, but a mighty Pandora got a signal, could connect and browse?

The signal was weak, they were unable to sustain a connection in order to set the webcam stream up. This is different from hopping on 2 seconds browsing a test page to see if wifi is working...