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Alexey
Asked: 2022-06-16 08:17:53 +0800 CST

Driver for AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet

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I have the following Ethernet to USB-C adapter:

$ lsusb | grep Ethernet
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0b95:1790 ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet

When plugged into the USB-C port, it may work or not, depending on the machine. In all cases, in dmesg I get:

[23552.344134] ax88179_178a 2-1:2.1 eth1: Failed to read reg index 0x0000: -32

I am wondering if I have the correct driver installed. I've seen that axge seems to be the correct driver, but it does not show up in lsmod.

What is the correct driver to use for AX88179, how to check if it is installed, and how to install it otherwise?

networking

1 Answers

  1. Please run the terminal command:

    modinfo ax88179_178a

    If you get output, then the driver is installed on your system. It is, by default, on all recent Ubuntu versions.

    Included in the output are the aliases; that is identifiers for the devices it covers. Check here:

    alias:          usb:v0B95p1790d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in*

    Your device, from lsusb is 0b95:1790, a perfect match. We know that the driver loaded as expected since it is mentioned in dmesg. Moreover, you can verify that it loads with:

    lsmod | grep ax88

    Next, please run the terminal command:

    modinfo axge

    On my updated 22.04 system, it returns:

    modinfo: ERROR: Module axge not found.

    The driver is not installed in Ubuntu as of today. A search yields no other useful information.

    When plugged into the USB-C port, it may work or not, depending on the machine.

    Does it not work because the driver doesn't load? Because Network Manager doesn't recognize it and connect? Because it won't connect at all, or what?

    There can be many reasons that an interface doesn't work aside from the driver.

    I realize that this is a partial answer until further information is given. I will supplement this answer with edits as appropriate.

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