asix ax88179 kernel module loaded but not doing anything | Gentoo Linux Community | Page 1

spiral sinew Feb 11, 2025, 3:31 AM

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so i have a usb-c docking station that has an ethernet port. i've been using linux for a while and i never ran into any issues with it, but when i installed gentoo it stopped working despite having made sure the driver kernel module was compiled and loaded.
the entire rest of the docking station works fine.

dmesg shows the kernel module loading, but then the module does not show any other messages there, not even when i disconnect and reconnect the hub. however it does seem like it did not load on boot, only after i ran sudo modprobe ax88179_178a.
dmesg does indeed log the device itself being attached on boot, however.

relevant output from usb-devices

T:  Bus=02 Lev=03 Prnt=08 Port=01 Cnt=01 Dev#=  9 Spd=5000 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 3.20 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 9 #Cfgs=  3
P:  Vendor=0b95 ProdID=1790 Rev=02.00
S:  Manufacturer=ASIX
S:  Product=AX88179A
S:  SerialNumber=0000051B5616F0
C:  #Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 2 Atr=a0 MxPwr=184mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=02(commc) Sub=0d Prot=00 Driver=(none)
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  16 Ivl=128ms
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=0a(data ) Sub=00 Prot=01 Driver=(none)

it really seems like some part of the system isn't realizing that this driver goes to that device or something. can't be fully sure tho

spiral sinew Feb 11, 2025, 4:26 AM

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ok so i went out and downloaded the official source code for the driver from the manufacturer's website

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and it works now

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so i guess i'll just go with that

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still weird that the official kernel driver won't take it on gentoo specifically tho

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maybe someone should look into that, just in case

spiral sinew Feb 11, 2025, 6:26 AM

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before, it was as a part of the kernel configurator (make nconfig on kernel source). what i just tried was downloading the official linux driver from https://www.asix.com.tw/en/support/download which is distributed as a source tarball, i simply ran make and sudo make install on it

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notably the official driver module has a different name than the one provided with the kernel

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yes

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sources

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manually

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i wanted to have the kernel configuration menu, and i need the source for that apparently
also the source kernel seems to be on a newer version last i checked

spiral sinew Feb 11, 2025, 6:31 AM

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spiral sinew i wanted to have the kernel configuration menu, and i need the source for that a...

nvm it apparently already caught up

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no i could've sworn gentoo-kernel was on 6.6.(sixty-something) while gentoo-sources was on 6.6.74

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when i was installing

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ah well

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but yeah i guess i can test, just to make sure

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true

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ngl i've also been wondering about zen/liquorix kernels but i don't want to push it yet

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i've read that

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and i've been on zen before for a while, since that's default on garuda apparently

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liquorix is apparently directly related to zen, but i can't fully tell them apart as far as their changes/optimizations

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you mean the module i downloaded right?

#asix ax88179 kernel module loaded but not doing anything