USB to Ethernet adapter
How-to use USB to Ethernet adapters
Contents
Prerequesities
Tested hardware
SMSC LAN9500
The SMSC LAN9500 is a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 to 10/100 Ethernet Controller. The datasheet can be found here: http://www.smsc.com/media/Downloads_Public/Data_Sheets/9500.pdf. An external EEPROM is used to store the LAN9500 configuration.
Kernel configuration
# make linux26-menuconfig
Device Drivers ---> [*] Network device support ---> USB Network Adapters ---> <M> Multi-purpose USB Networking Framework <M> CDC Ethernet support <M> SMSC LAN95XX based USB 2.0 10/100 ethernet devices
Additional tools
In order to read/write the configuration eeprom of the LAN9500, Ethtool has to be used.
# make menuconfig
Package Selection for the target ---> [*] Networking ---> [*] ethtool
Usage
First mount the module:
# modprobe smsc95xx
then start the new ethernet port
# ifconfig usb0 192.168.10.208 up
If the message "No EEPROM present" is displayed, this indicates that no configuration file has been detected in the EEPROM. The LAN9500 will start in a default mode and the MAC address will be randomly generated by Linux. The EEPROM can be read/write by using ethtool once the module loaded
ethtool -e usb0 (eeprom read) ethtool -E usb0 0x9500 offset value (eeprom write value at offset)
Additional informations concerning the EEPROM containt can be found on the SMSC web site.