usb network adapter

smite · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 11:45 am Post subject: usb network adapter

I'm installing gentoo on a friend's computer, and he is using a linksys etherfast usb100tx network adapter instead of a network card. Knoppix will detect and use it, but gentoo won't. Any ideas?

joehni · Apprentice Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 175

Although I do not have much experience with USB myself, you can at least check wether your kernel is basically able to support USB at all. Check dmesg output for any kind of ehci (USB 2.0) or OHCI (USB 1.1) output.

If you cannot detect anything, try to locate modules with this name in /lib/modules/<kernel-version> and try to load them with modprobe. Otherwise you must rebuild your kernel with USB support (note: there are two ohci modules; only one will work for your chipset). Additionally you will have to support the network USB adapter by a kernel module; see the kernel documentation which may work.

If your kernel supports USB, you should at least see entries in the kernel logs, when you plug in the USB device. Emerge usbutils and have a look at lsusb output.

Regards,
Jörg

smite · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:28 pm Post subject:

Yes, thank you for the reply, but I need to have gentoo installed to recompile my kernel or emerge anything. :cry:

joehni · Apprentice Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 175

Ahh. Well.

First of all I have to correct myself: The USB 1.1 drivers are either uhci or ohci. Which of them works you'll only know it fou modprobe it.

For Gentoo installation: Just try to modprobe these modules after Gentoo has booted from the CD! Try

modprobe ehci-hcd
modprobe ohci-hcd
modprobe uhci-hcd

If one of the drivers could be loaded continue with the driver for the USB network card. Unfortunately I do not know which driver is used for this adapter. Can you have a look at lsusb and lsmod after booting Knoppix? The module must have be loaded there already.

dub.wav · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 1:17 pm Post subject:

joehni · Apprentice Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 175

Again I have to correct myself:

The chipset USB driver's names are:

ehci-hcd (USB 2.0)
usb-ohci
usb-uhci
uhci

Last three ones are for USB 1.1 and you have to test for yourself whichone works in your situation. Only if you have those loaded (ehci-hcd for USB 2.0 or one of the others for USB 1.1), the pegasus driver can work.

I have a nforce2 chipset and I cannot compile my USB modules into the kernel (ehci-hcd and usb-ohci), since the kernel first initializes USB 2.0 and then USB 1.1. In my case this prevents any USB 2.0 device from working, since the USB 1.1 driver tries to handle it! So I have to load them as modules (in /etc/modules.autoload.d/<kernel>) in the proper sequence: first the usb-ohci and the the ehci-hcd. With this configuration I can connect two usb-storages (one is USB 1.1 and one is USB 2.0).

Worked this out in the last hour, therefore sorry for my misinformation above ...

infirit · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 3:26 pm Post subject:

I do not know if the pegasus modules is on the livecd, find out by:

smite · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2003 12:33 pm Post subject:

Thx, it works now!