Need some help with USB ethernet device

[p-user]

I need some help setting up my USB ethernet adapter.

Here is the setup. I have two pve hosts running on a mini PC using the build-in 2.5Gbit ethernet device.
I have also used the pve-network-interface-pinning, so the internal interface is shown as nic0. All working fine.

Now I want to add a 5Gbit USB adapter and transfer the interface from nic0 to this one.
The point is, it is recognised, the pve-network-interface-pinning renames it to nic2/nic3 etc, every new try gives me another nic number, so it must remember somewhere were it is at.
When I change the bridge device to use this new interface I loose ethernet connection, replugging the ethernet cable doesn't give me back a working connection. And a reboot doesn't do that either.

So, my question is, what is the best way to transfer from the internal ethernet to this USB ethernet in a working way.

Thanks for all the help,

Regards,
Albert

 

[odhiambo]

Look at your /etc/network/interfaces. In there, assign the right nicX to the vmbr0 and restart networking.

 

[p-user]

Thanks, that's what I had to do to regain control back to the original interface. I tried it again this morning, the USB interface showed up as nic3 and pointed the bridge interface to nic3. And it now seems to work.

Being nitpicking here, but I would have preferred the new interface as nic1, as the internal one shows as nic0 (yes I have used the network interface pinning). So, where can I find this pinning information, it's not in the interfaces file.

 

[Impact]

where can I find this pinning information

tail -n+1 /usr/local/lib/systemd/network/*

 

[odhiambo]

You said you are using the the pve-network-interface-pinning. So the clue is there.
If you changed the port where the USB Ethernet adapter is connected, then I guess it will be assigned a new name.
You can use your favorite AI to diagnose the issue. You'll probably need to delete the nic1, nic2, nic3 entries and let them be recreated.

 

[p-user]

tail -n+1 /usr/local/lib/systemd/network/*

This was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.

 

[p-user]

While it was working, I noticed that the network speed was just 1000 MB/s, not the expected 2500, as that is what switch currently handles as maximum speed.
Further inspection learned the following, the regular cdc_* network driver was used for this ethernet device (apparantly a Realtek 8157 chip, able to handle 5000 MB/s). Unfortunately, a better driver is not currently available in proxmox, namely the r8152 driver.

Ah well, I want to keep my pve hosts as clean as possible, so I'm not going to build the new driver for now. Since I don't own a 5000MB/s port switch yet it is not important at the moment.

My idea was to update the ethernet devices first (and keep them on 2500 MB/s) and update the switch later, but nevermind.

Are there any plans to include this driver in the proxmox main kernel?

 

[Impact]

Can you share this?

lsusb
lsusb -vt

It's possible that the driver is there but just isn't used. This can help:
- https://github.com/wget/realtek-r8152-linux/blob/master/50-usb-realtek-net.rules
- https://www.apalrd.net/posts/2023/network_realtek8156/
Also check

dpkg -L pve-firmware

And here: https://packages.debian.org/trixie/all/firmware-realtek/filelist

 

[p-user]

root@pve1:~# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0573:1573 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech) USB Audio and HID
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:b85b Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Bluetooth Radio
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8157 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB 10/100/1G/2.5G/5G LAN
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

root@pve1:~# lsusb -vt
/: Bus 001.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/12p, 480M
ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
|__ Port 003: Dev 004, If 0, Class=Communications, Driver=cdc_ncm, 480M
ID 0bda:8157 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
|__ Port 003: Dev 004, If 1, Class=CDC Data, Driver=cdc_ncm, 480M
ID 0bda:8157 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
|__ Port 006: Dev 002, If 0, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
ID 0573:1573 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech)
|__ Port 006: Dev 002, If 1, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
ID 0573:1573 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech)
|__ Port 006: Dev 002, If 2, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
ID 0573:1573 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech)
|__ Port 006: Dev 002, If 3, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=[none], 12M
ID 0573:1573 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech)
|__ Port 008: Dev 003, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
ID 0bda:b85b Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
|__ Port 008: Dev 003, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
ID 0bda:b85b Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
/: Bus 002.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 10000M
ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

root@pve1:~# dpkg -L pve-firmware | grep 815
/lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8153a-2.fw
/lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8153a-3.fw
/lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8153a-4.fw
/lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8153b-2.fw
/lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8153c-1.fw
/lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8156a-2.fw
/lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8156b-2.fw

As you can see, there is no 8152 driver available. And the cdc_ncm driver is currently used, limiting the speed to 1000 MB/s

 

[Impact]

Please use code blocks like me so this is readable. Searching for 0bda:8157 will find a bit about it.

 

[p-user]

Thanks for all the input here.

Since I want to keep my pve installs as standard as possible, I'm not going to install the rt8152 driver using dkms, but want to ask when this driver will be included in the standard download.

Really appreciate all the help and input so far.

Regards,
Albert