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Dell XPS 13 and USB 3.0 AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet adapter?
I own a Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition but I have issues using a USB 3.0 ASIX AX88179 based Gigabit Ethernet adapter.
As you can see in this link where I have posted more information about the issue, the adapter is recognized and packets seems to go through, but it cannot acquire an IP address, rendering itself unusable. I have tried to put a static IP address but still no luck.
It looks like it is a Dell XPS 13 issue because I have verified that this adapter is working fine on different hardware. Also in the following link (ubuntuforums) that I have asked for more help already, there is one more guy reporting issues with XPS 13 and this USB ethernet card. However, his issues were fixed after upgrading to the latest mainline kernel which is not the case for me :(
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2089845&page=3
Do you have any idea on how can I debug this further or can anyone else please report their experience on this combination?
jashsu
11 Posts
0
August 2nd, 2013 12:00
I have a dongle based on the AX88179 (branded by Plugable) running on a mid-2012 (project sputnik) XPS 13 with the 12.04 sputnik iso installed (kernel 3.2.0-51). Using the AX88179 v1.4.0 drivers for Linux from the Asix website, things seem to work alright. My understanding is this driver is merged into newer versions of mainline, so idk how much of that may apply to you.
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/f/4613/p/19506941/20368894.aspx#20368894
longshiptech
15 Posts
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August 4th, 2013 15:00
A very quick update from me that I hope may help - I've not compiled the driver for Linux but I have noticed some odd behaviour with my AX88179 USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet dongle (which I purchased to negate the iwlwifi wifi issues prior to replacing it with an Atheros based card) insofar as it works in both USB 3.0 ports, but for some reason when plugged into the left hand port it generates a lot of errors which causes occasional stalling of packet transmission.
The right hand port has no such issues.
The above is true on OS X (which I have dual booting on the XPS 13 Dev Ed) and given OS X is FreeBSD at it's core with various Appleisms on top, it's not too much of a stretch that the Linux codebase is sufficiently similar to manifest similar issues under Linux.
Compare performance between both USB ports and let us know the results please. The left hand port is powered for charging devices while the system is powered down, whether or not thi is a factor I have not had enough chance to investigate properly.
On the subject, however, I do have an external USB 3.0 hard drive which fails to mount or even be detected on the left hand USB port, but works a charm in the the right hand one.
Other USB 2.0 drives seem to be fine.
longshiptech
15 Posts
0
August 4th, 2013 15:00
"My understanding is this driver is merged into newer versions of mainline, so idk how much of that may apply to you."
Fwiw this is not autodetected in 13.04 with the latest updates so I doubt this has been accepted to the mainstream kernel tree yet.
alpha86
14 Posts
0
August 4th, 2013 20:00
Hi longshiptech,
The USB behavior you had noticed is indeed a known issue:
en.community.dell.com/.../19491324.aspx
I'm starting to think there are more defective machines around, just that it wasnt noticed by the user. (the left USB seems to fail only when power-hungry devices are plugged into it).
Anyway, does the gigabit ethernet adapter works perfectly on the right USB port now?
cyberang3l
5 Posts
0
August 19th, 2013 02:00
I have tried both port, but it doesn't get any better.
The only solution partly works for me (it is not very stable) is to force the link speed to 100Mbps.
Check this ubuntuforums thread:
ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php
jashsu
11 Posts
0
August 19th, 2013 03:00
My machine is l321x, so only the right side USB is 3.0, however the adapter works perfectly in GigE mode on it.
Edit: if it helps, the USB 3.0 controller on my older machine appears to be Fresco Logic FL1009.