AUE(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 AUE 💖 — the ADMtek AN986 Pegasus USB Ethernet driver, bestie edition ✨

okay so this is aue(4), from the Kernel Interfaces Manual. yes it's a kernel driver page. no it's not boring. come with me 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so you wanna bake this driver into your kernel? iconic. drop these lines into your kernel config file, exactly like this:

device uhci
device ohci
device usb
device miibus
device uether
device aue

OR — and honestly this is the low-effort slay — load it as a module at boot time instead. just put this one line in loader.conf(5):

if_aue_load="YES"

pick your fighter. both work. 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

the aue driver gives you support for USB Ethernet adapters that are built on the ADMtek AN986 Pegasus chipset. that's the whole vibe.

LinkSys USB10T adapters that contain the AN986 Pegasus chipset? they will operate at 100Base-TX and full-duplex. ate.

the Pegasus itself contains a 10/100 Ethernet MAC with an MII interface, and it's designed to work with both Ethernet and HomePNA transceivers. so it's flexible. we love that for it.

⚠️ but listen — plot twist — even though it was designed to interface with 100Mbps peripherals, the existing USB standard specifies a maximum transfer speed of 12Mbps. so do not expect to actually hit 100Mbps speeds with these devices. it's giving "designed for greatness, limited by the bus." 😭

the Pegasus supports a 64-bit multicast hash table, a single perfect filter entry for the station address, and promiscuous mode. packets get received and transmitted over separate USB bulk transfer endpoints. multitasking queen. 👑

the media types it supports 🎀

  • autoselect — turns on autoselection of the media type and options. and yes you can manually override the autoselected mode by adding media options to your /etc/rc.conf file. main character energy, honestly.
  • 10baseT/UTP — sets 10Mbps operation. the mediaopt option can also be used to enable full-duplex operation. not specifying full duplex implies half-duplex mode. no in-between, bestie.
  • 100baseTX — sets 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation. the mediaopt option can also be used to enable full-duplex operation. not specifying full duplex implies half-duplex mode. same rules, faster vibe. 🔥

and the media options ✨

  • full-duplex — forces full duplex operation. heads up: the interface will operate in half duplex mode if this media option is not specified. so if you want it, you gotta say it. communication is key 🫶

want the full how-to on configuring this device? go read ifconfig(8). iykyk.

💻 HARDWARE 💻

here's the roster of adapters the aue driver supports. the whole guest list, no skips:

  • Abocom UFE1000, DSB650TX_NA
  • Accton USB320-EC, SpeedStream
  • ADMtek AN986, AN8511
  • Billionton USB100, USB100LP, USB100EL, USBE100
  • Corega Ether FEther USB-T, FEther USB-TX, FEther USB-TXS
  • D-Link DSB-650, DSB-650TX, DSB-650TX-PNA
  • Elecom LD-USBL/TX
  • Elsa Microlink USB2Ethernet
  • HP hn210e
  • I-O Data USB ETTX
  • Kingston KNU101TX
  • LinkSys USB10T adapters that contain the AN986 Pegasus chipset, USB10TA, USB10TX, USB100TX, USB100H1
  • MELCO LUA-TX, LUA2-TX
  • Netgear FA101
  • Planex UE-200TX
  • Sandberg USB to Network Link (model number 133-06)
  • Siemens Speedstream
  • SmartBridges smartNIC
  • SMC 2202USB
  • SOHOware NUB100

if your adapter's on this list: slay. if not: sorry bestie, vibe check failed 🌈

🩺 DIAGNOSTICS 🩺

two messages you might see in your logs, and what they mean:

  • aue%d: watchdog timeout — a packet was queued for transmission and a transmit command was issued, but the device failed to acknowledge the transmission before a timeout expired. it ghosted you. 💀
  • aue%d: no memory for rx list — the driver failed to allocate an mbuf for the receiver ring. ran out of room, poor thing. 😭

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

ADMtek AN986 data sheet, http://www.admtek.com.tw.

go read the data sheet if you're feeling academic. obsessed with that for you 📚

📜 HISTORY 📜

the aue device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 4.0. an elder. a legend. respect the elders 🎀

💜 AUTHORS 💜

the aue driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ee.columbia.edu>. thank you Bill, we owe you everything 🫶✨

and that's the whole page, bestie — this one came from the Debian crew, dated November 24, 2015. drink some water, plug in your USB Ethernet adapter, and go touch some grass (the HomePNA kind, if you want) 🌸💅

📦 where this page comes from