Internet Speeds on VM, 3 distros (GhostBSD, EndeavourOS, ZorinOS)

General Linux Question
1

I am puzzled by the speed results I am getting on 3 different VM machines. Can someone point to explanations? These are using VMWare 17 Pro, Windows 10 host
Results from Ookla Speedtest. All tests used the same target server (same ISP, different city) and the same web browser (Firefox)
GhostBSD
NAT DL 62.23, UL 23.91
Bridged DL 76.74, UL 23.68
Zorin
NAT DL 21.5, UL 23.5
Bridged DL 13.5, UL 23.77
EndeavourOS
Bridged DL 252.94, UL 23.76

As you can see, upload speeds are largely the same but download speeds vary widely. I first noticed this trying to stream a video on YouTube, and fell down the rabbithole.
The results on Endeavour are the same as I get on the two regular installations on the same SSD.

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2

That suggests it is nothing to do with VM’s.

I assume these results are Mb per second?

I want to try this in some of my distros… I have GhostBSD, but not the other two.

I do know that with some types of internet connection, download speeds can vary according to how busy the link is. For example with mobile phone links, you share the bandwith with other users. Did you do all the tests at the same time of day?

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In answer to your questions, the host connection is wired, and all tests were run at the same time. I hope there are obvious tweaks i could try to see if it makes a difference

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Thanks Cliff,
That rules out internet issues.
I assume they are the same computer?
Lets see if I can replicate what you get
Neville

5

Hi @cliffsloane
Mine are all the same.
I have some in Virt-manager VM’s inside Void , and some hard installs

System     Ping     Download     Upload
Void/Virt-manager 
GhostBSD    32         134.0       10.6
            31         138.0       10.6
Antix23     38         138.1       10.2
            38         137.1        9.7
Artix       35         141.2        8.7
            27         142.3        8.6
Debian12    30         137.9        9.5
            29         137.3        9.0
Devuan5     30         140.1        9.5
            31         139.1        9.7

Hard Installs
Void        39          134.8       9.8
            38          138.6       9.9
MX23        32          135.6       9.5
            36          138.5       7.4

They are all firefox except Artix - it uses Gnome Web and DDG.
They are all NAT

There are absolutely no differences there.
I think you need to look somewhere other than inside your Linux distros , eg in VMWare, or Windows, for the cause of your differences.

Regards
Neville

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FWIIW: 1GB fiber but my speeds are limited by older firewall/router security settings. I get 950M directly from fiber router. All with Vivaldi, except Windows, Chrome.

host, Deb 12.5 247 313
VM’s, Vmware WS 13 All bridged.
W10 251 336
W10 Ent 197 282 (2nd run): 232 323
Debian 12.5 294 305 (2nd run): 304 317
LMDE6 285 320

I attribute the fluctuations to my firewall.

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The fluctuations are minor, just like mine.
I think we can conclude that distros do not differ in internet speed.
@cliffsloane 's differences come from something else.

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What hypervisor is VMWare using and is it the same for all VM’s?
It has its own native hypervisor, but I believe it can also use hyperv or kvm.

Lets get this correct. You have a hard install of Win10. Inside Win you run VMWare. Inside VMWare you run Ghostbsd, Endeavour Linux, and Zorin.
The network performances of Ghostbsd and Zorin are depressed, but not Endeavour.
I cant replicate your result in virt-manager.
Therefore VMWare is treating some OS’s differently.
Why?

9

I have two updates to report.
First, I found the problem with GhostBSD, but it is so embarrassing, I dare not mark it as “Solution”. I had one CPU and one core (instead of 1 and 4). THat seemed to do it.
Second, Zorin has shown another issue which is the cause, but I can’t fix it.
The network stats show Link Speed (elsewhere Connection Speed and Size) is 10 Mbps. I used ethtool (sudo ethtool <devname> -s speed 1000) to reset the speed, but nothing changed.I tried deleting the profile and rebooting and a few other futile gestures.
So how can it be that Zorin is at 10, others are at 100, and host is at 1000?

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10

Congratulations. It had to be something other than the OS itself.
All oversights are embarassing

OK, if ethtool cant change it from 10 Mbps, something else must be controlling it.

  • does Zorin have a Network Config Tool? If so look if it can change the 10Mbps
  • is NetworkManager running? It might cause Zorin to ignore other settings if it controls the ethernet interface.
  • do any VMWare settings interfere with the network interface?

You will get there, there is progress.

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I have an update.
On the advice of a Zorin forum member, I made a live USB of Zorin and looked at those numbers. Lo and behold, the speeds were what they should have been. So the problem is now narrowed to an issue between Zorin and VMWare. My guess is a kernel version. Next task is to try to boot into an older kernel and see if that makes a difference. That, or wait for a kernel upgrade.

12

or the live usb of Zorin set up its networking differently to the one running in VMWare.

I think you still have to look at why ethtool would not change settings. Something else is interfering.