2

Hoi!

I am trying to get an TP-Link UE300 USB3.0 to GigaBit ethernet adpater running as a full 3.0 device on an ubuntu 16.04 server.

In principle it works, but for some reason it is claimed by the cdc_driver and used as an USB 2.0 device. That results in a very limited bandwidth and the cdc_driver really doesn't know how to handle the device:

root@ff-payload:~# lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 2357:0601  
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:0601  
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2357:0601  
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0b05:1825 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 1 devices 2 to 3 are three of these adaptors. The TP-Link homepage claims that the UE300 uses a realtek RTL8153 chipset but for some reason none of 16.04 kernels realtek drivers feel responsible for the usb device.

Has anybody got a UE300 running as GB ethernet on 16.04 server?

blue skies Jan Albiez

P.S.: This is the output of a journalctl | grep eth:

Sep 14 13:43:45 ff-payload kernel: cdc_ether 1-6:2.0 eth0: register 'cdc_ether' at usb-0000:00:14.0-6, CDC Ethernet Device, f4:f2:6d:18:1f:82
Sep 14 13:43:45 ff-payload kernel: cdc_ether 1-7:2.0 eth1: register 'cdc_ether' at usb-0000:00:14.0-7, CDC Ethernet Device, f4:f2:6d:18:1e:6d
Sep 14 13:43:45 ff-payload kernel: cdc_ether 1-8:2.0 eth2: register 'cdc_ether' at usb-0000:00:14.0-8, CDC Ethernet Device, f4:f2:6d:14:06:13
Sep 14 13:43:45 ff-payload kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_ether
Sep 14 13:43:45 ff-payload kernel: cdc_ether 1-6:2.0 enxf4f26d181f82: renamed from eth0
Sep 14 13:43:45 ff-payload kernel: cdc_ether 1-7:2.0 enxf4f26d181e6d: renamed from eth1
Sep 14 13:43:45 ff-payload kernel: cdc_ether 1-8:2.0 enxf4f26d140613: renamed from eth2

and: lsmod | grep r8:

r8152                  49152  0
mii                    16384  2 r8152,usbnet
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  • Incredibly frustrating. I had mine work as a USB 3.0 device the first time I plugged it in, and now have the same problem as you.
    – detly
    Jan 7, 2018 at 10:07

2 Answers 2

1

Mine is running at USB 3.0 SuperSpeed

[  115.388427] usb 2-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[  115.409336] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=2357, idProduct=0601
[  115.409343] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=6
[  115.409347] usb 2-1: Product: USB 10/100/1000 LAN
[  115.409350] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: TP-LINK
[  115.409353] usb 2-1: SerialNumber: 000000000000
[  115.411273] cdc_ether 2-1:2.0 eth0: register 'cdc_ether' at usb-0000:00:14.0-1, CDC Ethernet Device, xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
[  117.624653] cdc_ether 2-1:2.0 enxd46exxxxxxxx: renamed from eth0

This is on Debian Sid with kernel 4.11

But, I'm only getting about 30 to 40 Mbps Ethernet for some odd reason.

1
  • Yeah, the low speed is more due to the cdc_ether claiming and handling it rather than the USB protocol used.
    – detly
    Feb 18, 2018 at 0:08
0

You'll need to use a kernel version that has this fix in it. According to Github, that's 4.15-rc1 onwards or 4.14-rc7 onwards.

If you are wary of the recent bug where some Lenovo machines can be bricked due to an SPI-related module corrupting the UEFI firmware on boot, note that this has been fixed in the 4.15 series (I double checked, but definitely check yourself if you're worried).

You can obtain recent kernels from the Ubuntu kernel not-really-a-PPA; for example I'm using 4.15-rc7 and can confirm that I'm getting substantially better speeds (ten times faster at least, your results will depend upon your own situation). 4.15-rc8 was just built, and you can check the parent directory for more recent builds in the future.

I'm sorry but I can't vouch for whether the kernels will install and work with 16.04 (I'm using 17.04). Please let me know if you have any success.

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  • The USB dongle I used to test this broke, so I didn't continue down that line! But thanks for the help nevertheless!
    – Jan
    Jan 30, 2018 at 10:20

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