Ethernet through the dock?

[dukla2000]

Reading OP - I still cannot understand why you are unable to run when powered: my power is old Samsung wall wart with Pine64 pinephone red cable, so again nothing fancy! What seems to work for me is plug everything (including power) into the dongle, then plug it into the phone. I think the phone is only enumerating stuff when it first connects to the dongle as I can get USB pendrive and keyboard/mouse to work this way, but not if I hotplug them after the dongle is connected to the phone. Similarly HDMI does work on my dongle. Last, when I plug in my dongle I often get a lot of clicking and a load of ANX messages in the log: about 50% of the time things have settled after 30 seconds and all the bits I expect to work are OK. Otherwise I unplug and try again. I have been neurotic that I have a physically loose connection but in fact think it is the ANX code that can be temperamental as I have had "the clicking symptom" kick off when the phone & dongle were flat on the desk and AFAIK the only movement was the earth rotating!

And another ps on the ethernet speeds I can get. Have radically improved with a cable swap   Using a cat 5e cable instead of an ever so flexible POS means the RockPro64 goes for Gigabit

Code:

[141547.178699] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx

and iperf does a lot better - constrained now by the USB-C methinks?

Code:

$ iperf3 -i 10 -t 60 -c 10.42.0.44
Connecting to host 10.42.0.44, port 5201
[  5] local 10.42.0.1 port 60234 connected to 10.42.0.44 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   383 MBytes   321 Mbits/sec    0    512 KBytes       
[  5]  10.00-20.00  sec   382 MBytes   320 Mbits/sec    0    595 KBytes       
[  5]  20.00-30.00  sec   381 MBytes   320 Mbits/sec    0    897 KBytes       
[  5]  30.00-40.00  sec   361 MBytes   303 Mbits/sec    0    897 KBytes       
[  5]  40.00-50.00  sec   370 MBytes   310 Mbits/sec    0    897 KBytes       
[  5]  50.00-60.00  sec   372 MBytes   312 Mbits/sec    0    897 KBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  2.20 GBytes   315 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  2.19 GBytes   314 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

[Zebulon Walton]

Nice - I went ahead and ordered one of the ebay ones to play around with.

[scholbert]

Reading OP - I still cannot understand why you are unable to run when powered: my power is old Samsung wall wart with Pine64 pinephone red cable, so again nothing fancy! What seems to work for me is plug everything (including power) into the dongle, then plug it into the phone. I think the phone is only enumerating stuff when it first connects to the dongle as I can get USB pendrive and keyboard/mouse to work this way, but not if I hotplug them after the dongle is connected to the phone. Similarly HDMI does work on my dongle. Last, when I plug in my dongle I often get a lot of clicking and a load of ANX messages in the log: about 50% of the time things have settled after 30 seconds and all the bits I expect to work are OK. Otherwise I unplug and try again. I have been neurotic that I have a physically loose connection but in fact think it is the ANX code that can be temperamental as I have had "the clicking symptom" kick off when the phone & dongle were flat on the desk and AFAIK the only movement was the earth rotating!

Hi,

i agree that it's kind of strange that the LAN chip only works with the dock unpowered.
As i got no original convergence dock i'm not able to do some mesurements.
So if this is the wrong place to post... tell me and i will delete my post.

Normally unpowered hubs enumerate with 100mA max. power.
If you then connect an external USB-LAN adapter, which enumerates with e.g. 250mA,
the driver would give a "unsufficient power" power message.
If you power up the hub before connecting to the Pinephone, it will enumerate as self powered hub.
Everything will be nice with the external USB-LAN adapter then.

Anyway i'd like to report what's happening when i use my USB‑C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (e.g. Apple-MUF82ZM and China-Clones).
These adapters seem to have a PD controller, a HDMI Bridge and a USB-Hub inside.

So this is the behaviour with the 5.10 kernel:
1. Scenario:
plug the adapter into the phone without power supply -> device get's recogized, hub is recognized as bus-powered, ANX7688 gets initialized after a few seconds
attach the power supply to the Type-C port -> PD is handled, charging symbol is showing up, but hub is not changing to self-powered
attach the USB-LAN Adapter to the Type-A port -> device gets enumerated but fails because device needs more than 100mA and self power wasn't recognized

2. Scenario (O.K.):
plug the adapter into the phone with power supply already attached -> device get's recogized, hub is now recognized as self-powered, ANX7688 gets initialized after a few seconds
attach the USB-LAN Adapter to the Type-A port -> now device gets enumerated and driver loads o.k.

This is very similar to dukla2000's observation.

In the meantime i also had a conversation with megous, and he told me the USB-PD function and USB role switching is still kind of flaky with the latest mobian kernel.
Megous is still very active to find some flaws in the kernel drivers for the Pinephone and already implemented new stuff for the ANX7688 driver.
Though these patches have not found their way to the mobian kernel yet.
So maybe we should contact a-wai to tell him about Megous' latest achievements...
See here for some of his latest patches in Dec. 2020:
https://github.com/megous/linux/commits/.../usb/typec

EDIT:
O.K. i just saw there'd been little adjustments in the mobian kernel repo... but parts are still missing... ayway this is not the right place to discuss these things i guess.

As i pointed out in the beginning... this info is not directly related to the Convergence-Dock, but it may have to do with an uncomplete implementation on the kernel side.

Cheers,
scholbert

[Diagon]

Which USB-LAN device are you using? I've got a UGREEN (no visible model number). In the following, the lights don't even flicker, though it works on my Ubuntu Thinkpad.

As of today, I now have three docks, and this is all on Mobian. I moved to my 5V/1A power supply. (Edit: I just did the same tests, with the same results, on Arch and Manjaro Plasma, but all of these are working on Manjaro Phosh!)

Convergence
plug power into dock
plug LAN into dock
plug phone into dock
--> power but no LAN

plug LAN into dock
(no power)
plug phone into dock
--> LAN Works!

plug power into dock
plug USB-LAN into dock
plug phone into dock
--> power but no LAN

plug USB-LAN into dock
(no power)
plug phone into dock
--> no LAN

-------------------------
QGeeM USB-C 9-port
plug power into dock
plug LAN into dock
plug phone into dock
--> power but no LAN

plug LAN into dock
(no power)
plug phone into dock
--> LAN Works!

plug power into dock
plug USB-LAN into dock
plug phone into dock
--> power but no LAN

plug USB-LAN into dock
(no power)
plug phone into dock
--> no LAN

----------------------------
Baseus GN16A
plug power into dock
plug USB-LAN into dock
plug phone into dock
--> power but no LAN.

plug usb into dock
(no power)
plug phone into dock
--> no LAN

---

EDIT:
O.K. i just saw there'd been little adjustments in the mobian kernel repo... but parts are still missing... ayway this is not the right place to discuss these things i guess.

As i pointed out in the beginning... this info is not directly related to the Convergence-Dock, but it may have to do with an uncomplete implementation on the kernel side.

Can you expand? I'm having the same difficulty with Convergence (have not tried my other two docks yet) on Arch and Manjaro Plasma, but not Manjaro Phosh! So, I am perplexed. I would like to report bugs to the proper projects, though.

[scholbert]

Hi Diagon,

we should take a little care not to mix things up too much here... i saw that you refered to Manjaro as well.
The handling of the docks/hubs is mainly related to kernel drivers (especially the behaviour of PD and ANX7688).
So is the handling of USB-LAN Adapters.
Manjaro and Mobian use different sources for their underlying kernel.

According to this post, Manjaro uses Megis's kernel (latest ANX7688 driver should be integrated then).
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-...hone/43299

I have not tested the USB role switching and PD support with this kernel... so out of focus for me now.
But these impementations are important things when it comes to USB host functionality on Pinephone.
The Mobian kernel lacks the latest updates Megous' has done on the ANX7688 driver.
From what i heard, the updated driver should be a better starting point...

Aynway, if we come back to your tests with Mobian... the behaviour of the docks/hubs you described is somehow strange.
See my comments on bus powered hubs vs. self powered hubs.

Yet another thing is the support for different USB-LAN chipsets of the specific kernel.
This depends heavily on the config of the kernel.

I use a LAN9500 based adapter which works as expected with the 5.10 Mobian kernel, but only with the hub in self powered mode.
The Mobian kernel config includes the driver, while the Megous' kernel lacks the needed module.

So in the end it's little bit difficult to find out what exactely is wrong with your setup.
You may check your kernel version with: uname -a
...see which modules are loaded with: lsmod
...or check your kernel messages with: dmesg

I don't want to get you even more confused, so i apologize if start to mix things up myself

Cheers,
scholbert

[Diagon]

Hi Diagon, [...]

According to this post, Manjaro uses Megis's kernel (latest ANX7688 driver should be integrated then).
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-...hone/43299

Ok, but oddly none of my tests worked with Mobian Plasma, while they did with Phosh. (?)

[...] The Mobian kernel lacks the latest updates Megous' has done on the ANX7688 driver.
From what i heard, the updated driver should be a better starting point...

Is there a way that these various projects are passing developments "upstream," as with the x86 kernel? Can we expect this to be merged soon?

[...] I use a LAN9500 based adapter which works as expected with the 5.10 Mobian kernel, but only with the hub in self powered mode.
The Mobian kernel config includes the driver, while the Megous' kernel lacks the needed module.

I have configured & compiled a kernel with Gentoo once, and I see there is some info on gentoo for Pinephone. That might offer a route to a working kernel. [...]

I also ordered yet another dock from eBay. The one @dukla2000 mentioned as working for him on Mobian. I'll report back when I get it.

Cheers,
scholbert
[/quote]

[scholbert]

Hi Diagon,

give us at least some information about your kernel running on Mobian in comparison to Manjaro (uname -a).
Tell us which modules got loaded when you got a working LAN (lsmod).
What are the kernel messages if it fails (dmesg)?

Try to give some answers here as well...

Ok, but oddly none of my tests worked with Mobian Plasma, while they did with Phosh. (?)

It should not rely on Plasma or Phosh to get a working LAN...
Maybe there's some setup missing with your Plasma configuration or the kernel is different.
Anyway try to sort things out without mixing up... so maybe we need the exact version of your OS then.

Is there a way that these various projects are passing developments "upstream," as with the x86 kernel?  Can we expect this to be merged soon?

Yeah sure it would be awesome if we could put it all upstream... but it's a long way to get everything patched in for Pinephone accepted by the mainline guys, i guess.
The Pinephone is still a new platform and the kernel implementation has gone better and better.
We need some polish though.
O.k. i must say, it would be nice, if there would be a distribution independent team, which could coordinate all the low level stuff (e.g. u-boot, crust, kernel).

I have configured & compiled a kernel with Gentoo once, and I see there is some info on gentoo for Pinephone.  That might offer a route to a working kernel. [...]

I also ordered yet another dock from eBay.  The one @dukla2000 mentioned as working for him on Mobian.  I'll report back when I get it.

Good luck with that!

Not sure if i could help you out on this, sorry!
Regards,
scholbert

[Zebulon Walton]

I received my eBay dock today:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/5-in-1-USB-3-0-...4211141163

It basically seems to work. It's powering the Pinephone when a charger is hooked up. The built-in gigabit ethernet adapter works and the USB ports do as well (though all those ports would be limited to USB 2 speeds due to the Pinephone hardware). I have not tested the HDMI port.

The gigabit ethernet comes up with the name "enx00e09901ad68". (I miss the old ethX designations!) Although the wired connection seems quite speedy I have not been able to verify the connection speed. There are no LEDs on the ethernet port to indicate speed or even connection status. Normally I'd use ethtool on the command line for this but it is not displaying the link speed, only that the link is present.

Code:

[root@mobian mobian]$ ethtool enx00e09901ad68
Settings for enx00e09901ad68:
        Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
                               drv probe link
    Link detected: yes

It should be possible to look at the speed via the /sys pseudo filesystem, but that doesn't work either:

Code:

[root@mobian mobian]$ cat /sys/class/net/enx00e09901ad68/speed
cat: /sys/class/net/enx00e09901ad68/speed: Invalid argument

Both the above methods were run as root. They do show the link speed on my desktop Ubuntu system, so I'm not sure what's going on with this.

EDIT:

Using "ethtool -i enx00e09901ad68" returns the following:

Code:

[root@mobian mobian]$ ethtool -i enx00e09901ad68
driver: cdc_ether
version: 5.10-sunxi64
firmware-version: CDC Ethernet Device
expansion-rom-version:
bus-info: usb-1c1a000.usb-1.4
supports-statistics: no
supports-test: no
supports-eeprom-access: no
supports-register-dump: no
supports-priv-flags: no

This is an Ethernet-over-USB device with an emulated gigabit adapter, which is probably why the usual ways of finding the link speed are not working.

[dukla2000]

...
They do show the link speed on my desktop Ubuntu system, so I'm not sure what's going on with this.
...

Check the log on your Ubuntu system - I get

Code:

$ dmesg | grep "Link is Up"
[  945.243906] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[  965.243553] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[ 2084.252878] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[ 3529.269497] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[12908.354651] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[53272.779516] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[53280.779494] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[54066.854736] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[84673.763023] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[84849.761185] rk_gmac-dwmac fe300000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx

so I know I am gigabit to the RJ45 on the dongle.

{Glad your no-name is broadly working }

[zborgerd]

I've been using Ethernet through the official dock for a few days. No problems at all with a standard "dumb" USB wall wart from older Android phones / tablets as long as it's rated for well over 2A. Problems occur when you connect a "smart" USB-C PC charger. I've read a bit here on the matter and it's apparently a work in progress (megi's site): https://xnux.eu/devices/feature/anx7688.html

The caveat is that there seems to be a .5A current limitation, but at least it works. With my "smart" USB-C PD supplies it doesn't work at all.

It looks like my new PinePhone (KDE Plasma Edition) shipped with anx7688 firmware 0x2312 if dmesg output is accurate. I have not tried to update it (yet). Unsure what would change if I did.