External USB Ethernet configuration

[en1gm4]

Anyone using external ethernet (in particular under Squeezeplay OS)?

My wired connection is dead and I have a spare ASIX AX88772 based USB ethernet adapter that it would be good to put to use.

I've tested it on both a chromebook and windows machine and it is working.... but need to know how to configure it under ubuntu via the command line.

Any help greatly appreciated (assuming it can be done and squeezeplay OS's interface preferences do not overwrite it
(And if it won't work, a pointer to a cheap usb ethernet that will would be great..)

[pete]

Over the years for my Wintel embedded XP touchscreen Jogglers have been using ASIX AX88772 USB external NICs. These are wired internally to the motherboard USB connection and using the replacement to the EFI bios. As I never had an issue with the internal NIC in Ubuntu. I am guessing though it might be plug n play as it is a common USB NIC. I have tested it on my Ubuntu laptop / desktop and it worked just fine.

I can enable it via the GUI or disable it just fine. IE: for the Squeezeplay OS you will most likely have to do some stuff.

Start by doing an lsusb and see if it is there.

Note of caution here. Many of the cheap (almost all of them) little white ones that look to be a MAC style ASIX (even sold this way with drivers that work) are clones and do not use an ASIX chip set and will not really run much faster than 8-10Mb's. These are sold on Ebay very cheap. You can take it apart to validate the cloned chip set. The real ASIX USB to NIC's cost a bit more than the cloned one. (IE: $3 USD dollars for a clone verses $10-20 USD for a real one). I made a deal out of these cloned one with Ebay after purchasing a few of them (in bulk) with last batch just credited. Vendors of the cloned devices just acted totally ignorant.

AsixClone.jpg (15.57 KiB) Viewed 4610 times

[en1gm4]

Thanks Pete

I think mine is a real one and looks like

Code: Select all

joggler@openframe:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 148f:2770 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2770 Wireless Adapte             r
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0b95:7720 ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88772
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 04b4:1974 Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

It looks like the joggler sees it, but nothing on ifconfig so presumably the correct asix module is not loading.
I'll boot up in ubuntu and see if if is configurable

[en1gm4]

I booted into xubuntu and it works perfectly first try
http://jwills.co.uk/projects/joggler-xubuntu/download/

I may run it this way for a while if the auto start for squeezeplay works ok.... although it is less tidy as I need a usb hub for the usb thumb drive (boot) and the ethernet.
(i'll try to hide all that from my wife

with luck there might be an easy way to get roobarbs sqpos to play nice with the ethernet...

good to keep those jogglers joggling for a while yet.


ps... deezer seems to be doing some strange things (skipping to next song before current one finished .... not sure if the two are related... but there is always something to fix

[pete]

Yup; every once in a while I have issues with the Asix USB Nics.

I think it is relating to some power draw?


The ASIX USB NIC is plugged in to the internal WLAN USB port.

Issues I have seen:

1 - screen turns to unresponsive hash ... concurrently...
2 - NIC starts to bellow and create a beaconing storm which plays havoc with my other Jogglers.

It stays like this until I unplug the power and start cold with the Joggler/Asix Combo.

I do not see it though drawing more power than the WLAN stick inside of the Joggler; she (WLAN stick) just gets too hot to handle sometimes; especially with an SSD card smothering it.