Buffer issues after October Update

[fzinken]

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

There is an issue with the way it streams & tranfers files wirelessly with SMB.

Well I am not sure about it but at least I was able to reproduce the difference in performance between fstab based transfer and smbclient.

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

You acknowledge the problem and are working on a fix for it after you did a “stretch update”.

As I wrote I was able to reproduce it on my system. @sam_nazarko is currently occupied with the final bugs on the stretch release. I hope that after that he find some time so that we can review this.

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

Is there anything I can do in the meantime? Can I set it up to use FTP instead, if yes, what would I write in my fstab file?

You could try FTP but that would not be via FSTAB but directly from Kodi. Alternatively best would be to use NFS if your Server/NAS support that.
What NAS/Server are you using?

[Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue]

Thank you for your reply. I use Windows 10 for my server which already runs a FTP server. I am not sure if it supports NFS?

I suppose the stretch update will not help to fix this issue?

Do you have an ETA for a fix for this issue that affects all Vero 4k owners using Wi-Fi?

[fzinken]

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

I suppose the stretch update will not help to fix this issue?

Yes, no change

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

Do you have an ETA for a fix for this issue that affects all Vero 4k owners using Wi-Fi?

As written we need first to identify what cases the bug before we can work on a fix

[Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue]

Do you have an update regarding this issue?

If needed, I could help you test?

[fzinken]

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

Do you have an update regarding this issue?

If needed, I could help you test?

Should be fixed in the devel version.

To test this update:

1. Login via the command line
2. Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list
3. Add the following line: deb http://apt.osmc.tv stretch-devel main
4. Run the following commands to update: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && reboot
5. Your system should have have received the update.

Please see if the issue is resolved.

I also recommend you edit /etc/apt/sources.list again and remove the line that you added after updating. This will return you to the normal update channel.

[Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue]

Unfortunately it did not resolve the issue - buffering over Wi-Fi is still too slow. It didn’t change much, subjectively I believe it is 10% faster.

What else can we try to test?

[sam_nazarko]

Been a while since I saw this. Is this a WiFi only problem?

Sam

[Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue]

Yes only via Wi-Fi. When I test via LAN it is fine.

When doing iperf3 test on Wi-Fi over the internet I can download with 130+ Mbit/s from a server in another country. When streaming video locally it maxes at about 30 Mbit/s.

So it has to do with the way the Vero 4k streams via SMB.

I am mounting with fstab.

[sam_nazarko]

The staging update is the best we can get SMB to now. You may find Kodi mounting faster than fstab now

[fzinken]

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

Yes only via Wi-Fi. When I test via LAN it is fine.

When doing iperf3 test on Wi-Fi over the internet I can download with 130+ Mbit/s from a server in another country. When streaming video locally it maxes at about 30 Mbit/s.

So it has to do with the way the Vero 4k streams via SMB.

I am mounting with fstab.

Ok one test at a time.

1. Do a 5 minute iperf3 against your Samba server (not an external server but exactly the server you are using as samba server) and post the last lines
2. Do a dd if=/mnt/<YOUR SERVER MOUNT DIRECTORY>/<YOUR TEST.FILE> of=/dev/null bs=1M count=3072 and post the output
3. Now connect using smbclient (might need to install with sudo apt-get install smbclient by connecting with smbclient //<IP OF SEVER>/<share> --user=<YOUR USER> and then execute get <YOUR TEST.FILE> and post the output

[Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue]

Test 1:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-300.00 sec 7.25 GBytes 208 Mbits/sec sender
[ 4] 0.00-300.00 sec 7.25 GBytes 208 Mbits/sec receiver

iperf Done.

Test 2:

osmc@osmc:~$ dd if="/mnt/temp/testfile.mkv" of=/dev/null bs=1M count=3072
3072+0 records in
3072+0 records out
3221225472 bytes (3.2 GB, 3.0 GiB) copied, 695.31 s, 4.6 MB/s

Test 3:

smb: \temp\> get "testfile.mkv"
getting file \temp\testfile.mkv of size 3268526135 as testfile.mkv (27411.4 KiloBytes/sec) (average 27411.4 KiloBytes/sec)

For test 2 I tried the same file as test 1, however it would take too long so I picked a smaller file.

So I think the results speak for themselves. How can I mount my server with smbclient?

[fzinken]

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

For test 2 I tried the same file as test 1, however it would take too long so I picked a smaller file.

So I think the results speak for themselves. How can I mount my server with smbclient?

I wonder if you are really on the testing kernel. Can you provide grab-logs -a

You can not directly mount via smbclient but using Kodi build in samba client should have similar results

[Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue]

Thank you for the quick reply.

Here is the log: https://paste.osmc.tv/rodamopeli

[fzinken]

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

Thank you for the quick reply.

Here is the log: https://paste.osmc.tv/rodamopeli

Ok you are on the latest Kernel (just a reminder I suggest you comment out the stretch-devel line to ensure you don’t get unwanted updates.

I just installed the same kernel and retested and I can not reproduce your issue.
So for the time being I only can suggest you try Kodi build in SMB client.

One more thing you could try is in your fstab change vers=3.0 to vers=2.1 and remove sec=ntlmssp

[fzinken]

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

Thank you for the quick reply.

Here is the log: https://paste.osmc.tv/rodamopeli

One last check, did you reboot after the update?
What is the output of uname -a

[Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue]

The output is:

Linux osmc 3.14.29-54-osmc #1 SMP Thu Jan 11 17:19:56 UTC 2018 aarch64 GNU/Linux

I changed the fstab file to vers=2.1 and removed the ntlmssp and then I typed “reboot” and started playback after it has had 5 minutes to idle after the reboot. It did not really change and is still only buffering with about 35 Mbit/s.

The in-built SMB client in Kodi is the first thing I tried when I first set up the unit. I later learned that fstab is the way to go, so I set that up.

I have not removed the stretch-devel line as I thought we were still testing and the newest possible update channel might be the way to go. Are you sure that I should remove the line?

[fzinken]

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

I changed the fstab file to vers=2.1 and removed the ntlmssp and then I typed “reboot” and started playback after it has had 5 minutes to idle after the reboot. It did not really change and is still only buffering with about 35 Mbit/s.

That is really strange

@Vero_4k_Buffer_Issue

The in-built SMB client in Kodi is the first thing I tried when I first set up the unit. I later learned that fstab is the way to go, so I set that up.

Try it again, recently it improved and some people see decent results. You actually can just try it in the Kodi Filemanager and copy the testfile.mkv and time it to guess throughput.