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    ASIX AX88179 USB to GigE

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      The best thing is just go straight to the source:
      http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/dev/usb/usbdevs?revision=255238&view=markup

      /* ASIX Electronics products */
 	product ASIX AX88172	0x1720	10/100 Ethernet
 	product ASIX AX88178	0x1780	AX88178
 	product ASIX AX88772	0x7720	AX88772
 	product ASIX AX88772A	0x772a	AX88772A USB 2.0 10/100 Ethernet
 	product ASIX AX88772B	0x772b	AX88772B USB 2.0 10/100 Ethernet
 	product ASIX AX88772B_1	0x7e2b	AX88772B USB 2.0 10/100 Ethernet

      No support for the AX88179 as of 2 weeks ago.  :(

      Perhaps that's not suprising. Net BSD only just got support for it.
      http://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2013/09/14/msg047584.html
      OpenBSD not long before that.
      http://www.mail-archive.com/source-changes@openbsd.org/msg41366.html

      Significant work required to make that adapter work with pfSense. Sorry.

      Steve

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      • M
        mcampbell
        last edited by

        @stephenw10:

        It is but it doesn't support that specific chip. I suggested looking in the FreeBSD forum for the product id.

        Ah, my bad, I somehow missed the word "FreeBSD", and thought you meant somewhere on this forum.

        @stephenw10:

        No support for the AX88179 as of 2 weeks ago.  :(

        Perhaps that's not suprising. Net BSD only just got support for it.
        http://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2013/09/14/msg047584.html
        OpenBSD not long before that.
        http://www.mail-archive.com/source-changes@openbsd.org/msg41366.html

        Significant work required to make that adapter work with pfSense. Sorry.

        Steve

        Well, poo.  I guess I'll have to get another adapter, and make certain it has one of the chips in that list.

        Is FreeBSD usually the last of the *BSDs to support something?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          Not necessarily but the similarities between the BSDs means that once one has it the other usually get it shortly afterwards. It really depends who is maintaining the driver for each distro and what hardware they have available to them or whether someone is sponsoring the work.

          Steve

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          • M
            mcampbell
            last edited by

            Just as an update (if anyone's interested), I went and got one of these at Fry's (after researching it to confirm it had one of the above listed chipsets), and it seems to be working well.  I still haven't finished the full configuration of all my devices on this new network, but it shows up in usbconfig (as an x772a chipset), it shows up in the Interfaces section, complete with a mac address, and the DHCP server is now set to serve up IPs on it.  I think that counts as a success. ;)

            Unfortunately, at least according to usbconfig, it shows up as a lowly FULL speed (12Mbit) USB device.  But I think I'll manage with that for now, as my traffic to/from that network will largely be SSH.  As I get all my devices situated on it, I'll try some throughput tests to see what kind of bandwidth & reliability I get from it; not that I'm expecting a lot of either one, but just as a frame of reference for anyone interested.

            I decided to keep my Rosewill USB 3 to Gigabit adapter.  I figure some time down the road, this chipset (& USB 3.0, for that matter) will be supported by FreeBSD, and eventually trickle down to pfSense.

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            • N
              nothing
              last edited by

              At some point you will realize that this usb2ethernet thing is sh!t and will buy small manageable switch :)

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              • M
                mcampbell
                last edited by

                @nothing:

                At some point you will realize that this usb2ethernet thing is sh!t and will buy small manageable switch :)

                I have no delusions about this being a particularly good setup, but hopefully by the time the inherent problems are too visible, I will have gotten my business development far enough along that it will have outgrown my home ;)  In the meantime, it is a "good enough" solution–the connection thus far has been solid, no drop offs, and it provides me a way to segregate my network just fine.  Not too shabby for $12.

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                • B
                  bryan.paradis
                  last edited by

                  https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/blob/master/sys/dev/usb/net/if_axge.c?source=cc

                  Might be a good chance that it is in the v10 release now.

                  
Wed Nov 20 02:16:47 2013 

1121	/* ASIX Electronics products */
1122	product ASIX AX88172		0x1720	10/100 Ethernet
1123	product ASIX AX88178		0x1780	AX88178
1124	product ASIX AX88178A		0x178a	AX88178A USB 2.0 10/100/1000 Ethernet
1125	product ASIX AX88179		0x1790	AX88179 USB 3.0 10/100/1000 Ethernet
1126	product ASIX AX88772		0x7720	AX88772
1127	product ASIX AX88772A		0x772a	AX88772A USB 2.0 10/100 Ethernet
1128	product ASIX AX88772B		0x772b	AX88772B USB 2.0 10/100 Ethernet
1129	product ASIX AX88772B_1	0x7e2b	AX88772B USB 2.0 10/100 Ethernet
                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • B
                    bryan.paradis
                    last edited by

                    I loaded up a FreeBSD 8.3 VM and attempted building this from the FreeBSD git. I haven't tested it no adapter on hand. Will try to buy one later today if I can find one else will have to wait till next week. Just a note it looks like this driver will be showing up in FreeBSD 10.1

                    i386 Untested - Use at your own risk

                    if_axge.ko

                    To install

                    cd /boot/modules
fetch http://fs08n3.sendspace.com/dl/671abb5cf606ffcd0e4268438f52a664/52e3a3b15d8244b8/a7az2c/if_axge.ko
kldload if_axge.ko

                    Then to check that its loaded

                    kldstat
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                    • M
                      mcampbell
                      last edited by

                      Sweet, so what version does that translate to for pfSense?

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        FreeBSD 8.3 is the base for 2.1 and now 2.1.1.

                        Steve

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                        • M
                          mcampbell
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10:

                          FreeBSD 8.3 is the base for 2.1 and now 2.1.1.

                          Steve

                          Actually, I was referring to FreeBSD 10.  I realize we haven't even made the leap to FreeBSD 9 yet, so we may still be talking years away(?), I was just curious if there was an expectation as to what future pfsense version that might line up with?

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                          • M
                            mcampbell
                            last edited by

                            In the meantime, I will definitely try out the driver you posted, Bryan.  And I'll report back the results of my testing.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Ah sorry. 2.2 will be built on FreeBSD 10. Some very early pre-alpha builds have come out of the build servers so wer're hopefully not talking years. Not ready for public consumption yet though.

                              Steve

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                              • M
                                mcampbell
                                last edited by

                                Interesting, I would have thought that a leap from FreeBSD 8.3 to 10/10.1 would have warranted a major (not just a minor) version change on the pfsense side as well.  But that gives me hope, since now I know I don't have to wait two full versions away, but just one!

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                                • B
                                  bryan.paradis
                                  last edited by

                                  @mcampbell:

                                  Interesting, I would have thought that a leap from FreeBSD 8.3 to 10/10.1 would have warranted a major (not just a minor) version change on the pfsense side as well.  But that gives me hope, since now I know I don't have to wait two full versions away, but just one!

                                  backporting drivers is fairly common. Note that the driver wont be in freebsd release until 10.1 not 10.

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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    @mcampbell:

                                    I would have thought that a leap from FreeBSD 8.3 to 10/10.1 would have warranted a major (not just a minor) version change

                                    Yes I see what you mean. However I would argue that the changes that went into 2.1 were much more extensive from a pfSense point of view than even though the base system only incremented from FreeBSD 8.1 to 8.3. The 2.2 release will not have many new features as I understand it, the devs are concentrating purely on bringing the base system up to FreeBSD 10 so from that point of view pfSense will not have changed dramatically. It's being built as 2.2 currently but who knows the devs might decide it warrants a major change and go straight to 3.0. Just have to wait and see.  ;)

                                    Steve

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                                    • M
                                      mcampbell
                                      last edited by

                                      @bryan.paradis:

                                      backporting drivers is fairly common. Note that the driver wont be in freebsd release until 10.1 not 10.

                                      Duly noted!  But I would suppose that it's generally easier to backport within the same major version, as opposed to jumping between two major versions.

                                      @stephenw10:

                                      Yes I see what you mean. However I would argue that the changes that went into 2.1 were much more extensive from a pfSense point of view than even though the base system only incremented from FreeBSD 8.1 to 8.3. The 2.2 release will not have many new features as I understand it, the devs are concentrating purely on bringing the base system up to FreeBSD 10 so from that point of view pfSense will not have changed dramatically. It's being built as 2.2 currently but who knows the devs might decide it warrants a major change and go straight to 3.0. Just have to wait and see.  ;)

                                      Steve

                                      Fair enough.  It's a worthy cause, as I'm sure that if nothing else, there's a lot of security updates between 8.3 & 10.  Perhaps we'll see a goodly amount of bug fixes as well.

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                                      • H
                                        Huxy
                                        last edited by

                                        Hiya,

                                        I attempted to load the axge module provided, but get an exec format error.
                                        I'm using release 2.1 i386. Have I missed something?

                                        [2.1-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/boot/modules(38): ls -la
                                        total 125
                                        drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel    512 Jan 28 19:09 .
                                        drwxr-xr-x  7 root  wheel    512 Sep 11 23:51 ..
                                        -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  103996 Sep 11 23:51 bwi_v3_ucode.ko
                                        -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  15890 Jan 28 19:08 if_axge.ko

                                        [2.1-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/boot/modules(39): usbconfig
                                        ugen0.1: <uhci root="" hub="" intel="">at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=SAVE
                                        ugen1.1: <ehci root="" hub="" intel="">at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE
                                        ugen1.2: <product 0x8000="" vendor="" 0x8087="">at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE
                                        ugen1.3: <ax88179 asix="" elec.="" corp.="">at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON

                                        [2.1-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/boot/modules(40): kldload if_axge.ko
                                        kldload: can't load if_axge.ko: Exec format error

                                        Cheers</ax88179></product></ehci></uhci>

                                        http://blog.codeape.co.uk

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • B
                                          bryan.paradis
                                          last edited by

                                          @Huxy:

                                          Hiya,

                                          I attempted to load the axge module provided, but get an exec format error.
                                          I'm using release 2.1 i386. Have I missed something?

                                          [2.1-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/boot/modules(38): ls -la
                                          total 125
                                          drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel    512 Jan 28 19:09 .
                                          drwxr-xr-x  7 root  wheel    512 Sep 11 23:51 ..
                                          -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  103996 Sep 11 23:51 bwi_v3_ucode.ko
                                          -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  15890 Jan 28 19:08 if_axge.ko

                                          [2.1-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/boot/modules(39): usbconfig
                                          ugen0.1: <uhci root="" hub="" intel="">at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=SAVE
                                          ugen1.1: <ehci root="" hub="" intel="">at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE
                                          ugen1.2: <product 0x8000="" vendor="" 0x8087="">at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE
                                          ugen1.3: <ax88179 asix="" elec.="" corp.="">at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON

                                          [2.1-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/boot/modules(40): kldload if_axge.ko
                                          kldload: can't load if_axge.ko: Exec format error

                                          Cheers</ax88179></product></ehci></uhci>

                                          Are you running amd64?

                                          @bryan.paradis:

                                          i386 Untested - Use at your own risk

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                                          • H
                                            Huxy
                                            last edited by

                                            Turns out it was the download link. I manually downloaded and sftp'd the file from windows to the pfsense box and I was able to load the module.

                                            However, as soon as I attempt to assign the interface to a role, the machine crashes with reference to the algx module.

                                            
Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
cpuid = 0; apic id = 00
fault virtual address = 0x8
fault code = supervisor read, page not present
instruction pointer = 0x20:0xc5091e46
stack pointer = 0x28:0xd6775c94
frame pointer = 0x28:0xd6775ca0
code segment = base 0x0 limit 0xffffff, type 0x1b
= DPL 0, pres 1, def 32 1, gran 1
processor eflags = interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL = 0
current process = 14 (axge0)
trap number = 12
panic: page fault

                                            http://blog.codeape.co.uk

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