I'm running Ubuntu Server 19.10 with latest updates etc. My problem is that I'm using a very old mainboard without a GBit LAN so I bought an external GBit LAN "adapter". Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

When I plug it in, it lights up for roughly 6 seconds and then the lights turn off. When I do lsusb, it shows that it's still plugged in and is recognized.ifconfig -a looks like the following:

docker0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 inet 172.17.0.1 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast 172.17.255.255 ether (*macadress*) txqueuelen 0 (Ethernet) RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
enp1s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 inet 192.168.178.45 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.178.255 inet6 fe80::225:22ff:fe5c:776a prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link> inet6 2003:c0:ff32:fe00:225:22ff:fe5c:776a prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x0<global> ether (*macadress*) txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) RX packets 1908 bytes 169364 (169.3 KB) RX errors 0 dropped 894 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 700 bytes 72274 (72.2 KB) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
enx000ec65d0eff: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 ether (*macadress*) txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host> loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback) RX packets 1260 bytes 89772 (89.7 KB) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 1260 bytes 89772 (89.7 KB) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

Where "enx000ec65d0eff" is the external GBit adapter. By the way, the adapter is a "UGREEN USB 3.0 Ethernet Adapter".

I tried reinstalling the kernel, kernel modules and even tried to build that driver myself even though it's built into the kernel (5.3.0-40), but it doesn't complete and quits with error code 2 ("build-essential" and "linux-headers-generic" are installed):

make -C /lib/modules/5.3.0-40-generic/build SUBDIRS=/home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE modules
make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.3.0-40-generic'
Makefile:227: ================= WARNING ================
Makefile:228: 'SUBDIRS' will be removed after Linux 5.3
Makefile:229:
Makefile:230: If you are building an individual subdirectory
Makefile:231: in the kernel tree, you can do like this:
Makefile:232: $ make path/to/dir/you/want/to/build/
Makefile:233: (Do not forget the trailing slash)
Makefile:234:
Makefile:235: If you are building an external module,
Makefile:236: Please use 'M=' or 'KBUILD_EXTMOD' instead
Makefile:237: ========================================== CC [M] /home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE/ax88179_178a.o
/home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE/ax88179_178a.c:816:3: error: ‘struct ethtool_ops’ has no member named ‘get_settings’; did you mean ‘get_strings’? 816 | .get_settings = ax88179_get_settings, | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ | get_strings
/home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE/ax88179_178a.c:816:19: error: initialization of ‘int (*)(struct net_device *, struct ethtool_eeprom *, u8 *)’ {aka ‘int (*)(struct net_device *, struct ethtool_eeprom *, unsigned char *)’} from incompatible pointer type ‘int (*)(struct net_device *, struct ethtool_cmd *)’ [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types] 816 | .get_settings = ax88179_get_settings, | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE/ax88179_178a.c:816:19: note: (near initialization for ‘ax88179_ethtool_ops.set_eeprom’)
/home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE/ax88179_178a.c:817:3: error: ‘struct ethtool_ops’ has no member named ‘set_settings’; did you mean ‘get_strings’? 817 | .set_settings = ax88179_set_settings, | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ | get_strings
/home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE/ax88179_178a.c:817:19: error: initialization of ‘int (*)(struct net_device *, struct ethtool_coalesce *)’ from incompatible pointer type ‘int (*)(struct net_device *, struct ethtool_cmd *)’ [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types] 817 | .set_settings = ax88179_set_settings, | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE/ax88179_178a.c:817:19: note: (near initialization for ‘ax88179_ethtool_ops.get_coalesce’)
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:290: /home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE/ax88179_178a.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [Makefile:1655: _module_/home/julius/Downloads/AX88179_178A_LINUX_DRIVER_v1.19.0_SOURCE] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.3.0-40-generic'
make: *** [Makefile:30: default] Error 2

The really strange thing is that I checked the adapter with Ubuntu desktop live and got it running without taking further action. So I think it's a driver problem. Switching to Ubuntu Desktop isn't an option for me because I only got 2GB RAM and Ubuntu Server uses ~400MB at idle whereas Ubuntu Desktop uses well over 1.3GB.cat /etc/netplan/*.yaml results in

# This file is generated from information provided by
# the datasource. Changes to it will not persist across an instance.
# To disable cloud-init's network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network: ethernets: enp1s0: dhcp4: true version: 2

5

1 Answer

Per the OP (in edits):

Got it working by editing the file located in /etc/netplan/ to:

network: ethernets: enp1s0: dhcp4: true enx000ec65d0eff: dhcp4: true version: 2

Thanks to chili555.

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Sign up using Google Sign up using Facebook Sign up using Email and Password Submit

Post as a guest

Post Your Answer Discard

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy