Question Plea to NAS mfgs - support USB NICs based on Linux-supported chipsets, regardless of actual device brand, please.

[VirtualLarry]

Seeing as how, QNAP released their Aquantia-chipset-based 5GbE-T USB3.x adapter, and Asustor just released their 2.5GbE-T USB3.x adapter that is RealTek-based, but BOTH ARE SUPPORTED IN LINUX, it would be nice if they would allow them (or other brands of adapters with the SAME, LINUX-SUPPORTED chipset), in their UIs and configuration menus, and whatnot, assuming that the device in question, is supported by the Linux kernel on the device.

That would just "be nice", and allow a lot of flexibility and lee-way for the end-user of their products, to purchase devices that they see fit for their purpose, and use them with their Linux-based NAS hardware.

Basically, I'm talking about brand-agnostic support for these USB multi-gig ethernet devices, if they're already supported in the Linux kernel. Certainly, if they are the SAME brand as the NAS, they could add something to the UI, to signify some sort of icon or certified device or whatnot, but at least, offer basic support for other-branded devices, including chinese generic models with those supported chipsets.

 

[SamirD]

Interesting. So do they actually check for brand on the adapters atm?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't know that they've ever supported USB NICs other than their own, which is a relatively new thing. I could try plugging in some generic Chinese USB 1GbE-T NICs, especially the ones with the RealTek chipset should be supported by Linux.

I would imagine a UI listing the network connections, and if graphical, a yellow triangle alert icon for non-same-branded ones, with a link to the NAS mfg's web site, about that USB device ID, and then showing the NAS mfg's equivalent part, with a link to purchase, and maybe some sort of scary disclaimer, that they don't warrant that the device will work with the NAS properly, etc., etc. But as long as basic functionality of the chipset in Linux was maintained, I wouldn't care so much even if they put up scary disclaimer screens.

 

[mxnerd]

A disclaimer will not help because end users will still ask free tech support.

The reason NAS vendors only support their own products is that they only have quality control over their own products. BYOD devices do not earn they any money and only bring support problems.

 

[VirtualLarry]

But, AFAIK, USB (3.0, 2.0) external HDDs / Mass Storage Devices, are not whitelisted, to my knowledge. The NAS will work with any that you plug in.

Likewise, many newer Linux-based routers, with USB ports, will work with 3G/4G USB cellular modems/dongles, without regard to brand. (Those might be whitelisted.)

I was just suggesting, that possibly USB NICs could be treated the same way.

 

[abufrejoval]

Seeing as how, QNAP released their Aquantia-chipset-based 5GbE-T USB3.x adapter, and Asustor just released their 2.5GbE-T USB3.x adapter that is RealTek-based, but BOTH ARE SUPPORTED IN LINUX, it would be nice if they would allow them (or other brands of adapters with the SAME, LINUX-SUPPORTED chipset), in their UIs and configuration menus, and whatnot, assuming that the device in question, is supported by the Linux kernel on the device.

That would just "be nice", and allow a lot of flexibility and lee-way for the end-user of their products, to purchase devices that they see fit for their purpose, and use them with their Linux-based NAS hardware.

Basically, I'm talking about brand-agnostic support for these USB multi-gig ethernet devices, if they're already supported in the Linux kernel. Certainly, if they are the SAME brand as the NAS, they could add something to the UI, to signify some sort of icon or certified device or whatnot, but at least, offer basic support for other-branded devices, including chinese generic models with those supported chipsets.

I am not sure I understand what you're asking...

The Aquantia/Marvell chipsets are supported by default on current variants of CentOS/RHEL and Fedora, I assume also on Ubuntu. I've tested ACQ 107 and ACQ111 on all three, they work for the PCIe variants and the ones with a USB3 bridge chip like the QNAP adapter.

The RealTek RTL8156 chip used for 2.5Gbit doesn't seem to have Linux support by default yet. Unfortunately existing code for RealTek chipsets doesn't know that and does a half-assed job at reporting the chips presence, attempts to initialise it, but fails to support it properly.

You need to download the correct driver in source code, compile it for your system and install a udev-rule to identify the proper and separate kernel module for handling it: It's all in the Makefile, but there is actually a bug in the source code that I had to correct to get it working on CentOS 7. It's a bit of a bother for now, because you have to recompile after every kernel update.

I have Pentium J5005 based systems which use both, an onboard RTL 8168 PCIe 1Gbit and the RTL 8156 USB3 2.5Gbit NICs and it took me a while to figure this out.

Once that driver is there, I have switched between DeLock and Club3D branded 2.5Gb Realtek adapters without issue: Perhaps Asus does something different, but I think it more likely you're falling into the same trap that got me, assuming that support for the RTL8156 is already included in current Linux distros when the default RTL8111/8168 driver is simply 'biting off more Gbits than it can chew'.

 

[abufrejoval]

Turns out, I was wrong with the AQC111U support on Linux, at least for CentOS7.7. You need to download and compile that driver, too (AQC107/108 became standard with the CentOS7.6 release).

I could have sworn I tested it with Fedora 30 so I assumed it was a unified driver, as the hardware is also more similar than I thought previously.

But it's a driver provided and downloaded from the Marvell, nothing QNAP about it, except the embedded CD-ROM image with the Windows drivers. DeLock does that, too, but beyond the embedded driver disks all branding stops and the drivers are completely generic for both Aquantia and RealTek chipsets.