I have an SSD/ethernet problem with a pi zero and would appreciate advice. I'm trying to build a NAS to store security camera images and only modest performance is needed.
I have a USB hub with a Realtek RTL8151 ethernet interface: https://thepihut.com/products/ethernet- ... connector
If I load bookworm lite with no desktop to an SD card and boot it up, it gets a dhcp ip4 address and I can SSH it and ping devices.
Ethernet works fine and it appears very stable.
If though I write the same image to a Crucial 1TB ssd and create an SD card with a FAT32 partition with just bootcode.bin and an empty file 'timeout' and connect the SDD via a Startech USB/Sata interface, then networking just doesn't work. I can login via keyboard and hdmi and I can ping 127.0.0.1 but nothing else.
I get the same symptoms with Bullseye.
The SD version journal entry shows the interface being properly recognised as an ether device:
Jordana describes a problem with this same ethernet chip: viewtopic.php?t=384541
He suggests creating a file /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/0bda:8151 to hold:But his fix does not work for me.
A similar problem (but with Bullseye) is also discussed here: https://dietpi.com/forum/t/ethernet-not ... grade/5752
His solution of adding ' net.ifnames=0' added to end of /boot/cmdline.txt also fails.
I have been suspicious of a power starvation problem but even the 1.7A claimed on the SSD label should be within the capability
of the 2.5A pi psu. To exonerate power, I have started again from scratch, re-imaged the SSD, applied both the above fixes,
powered the ssd from an external supply, connected via an old non-UASP/usb interface and performed a first boot. Exactly the same symptoms.
Why might ethernet work if I use an SD image but not the same image on an SSD?
Is there some nmcli magic I can apply?
My fallback situation is to mount the SSD to the working SD image or go for a pi5, but I have the bit between my teeth and I want to
get to the bottom of what I am sure is a software problem! Any advice appreciated.
Phil
I have a USB hub with a Realtek RTL8151 ethernet interface: https://thepihut.com/products/ethernet- ... connector
If I load bookworm lite with no desktop to an SD card and boot it up, it gets a dhcp ip4 address and I can SSH it and ping devices.
Ethernet works fine and it appears very stable.
If though I write the same image to a Crucial 1TB ssd and create an SD card with a FAT32 partition with just bootcode.bin and an empty file 'timeout' and connect the SDD via a Startech USB/Sata interface, then networking just doesn't work. I can login via keyboard and hdmi and I can ping 127.0.0.1 but nothing else.
I get the same symptoms with Bullseye.
The SD version journal entry shows the interface being properly recognised as an ether device:
The SSD version though recognises it as a storage device:Jul 27 17:16:55 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
Jul 27 17:16:55 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8152, bcdDevice=20.00
Jul 27 17:16:55 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jul 27 17:16:55 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: Product: USB 10/100 LAN
Jul 27 17:16:55 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Realtek
Jul 27 17:16:55 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: SerialNumber: 00E04C360846
Jul 27 17:17:08 Camdata mtp-probe[329]: checking bus 1, device 5: "/sys/devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4"
Jul 27 17:17:10 Camdata kernel: r8152-cfgselector 1-1.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
Jul 27 17:17:11 Camdata kernel: r8152 1-1.4:1.0: skip request firmware
Jul 27 17:17:11 Camdata kernel: r8152 1-1.4:1.0 eth0: v1.12.13
Jul 27 17:17:25 Camdata mtp-probe[430]: checking bus 1, device 5: "/sys/devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4"
Jul 27 17:17:26 Camdata kernel: r8152 1-1.4:1.0 eth0: carrier on
Jul 27 17:17:28 Camdata ModemManager[328]: <info> [base-manager] couldn't check support for device '/sys/devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4': not supported by any plugin
lsusb on SD version confirms ether device:May 13 01:37:18 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
May 13 01:37:18 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=8151, bcdDevice=20.00
May 13 01:37:18 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
May 13 01:37:18 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: Product: USB 10/100 LAN
May 13 01:37:18 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Realtek
May 13 01:37:18 Camdata kernel: usb 1-1.4: SerialNumber: 00E04C36084678
May 13 01:37:18 Camdata kernel: usb-storage 1-1.4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
May 13 01:37:18 Camdata kernel: scsi host1: usb-storage 1-1.4:1.0
May 13 01:37:24 Camdata mtp-probe[229]: checking bus 1, device 5: "/sys/devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4"
lsusb on SSD is different.Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8152 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8152 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 413c:2003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard SK-8115
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
nmcli on the sd version shows this:Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:8151 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8151 Adapteon Business Mobile Networks BV
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 413c:2003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard SK-8115
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 174c:55aa ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1051E SATA 6Gb/s bridge, ASM1053E SATA 6Gb/s bridge, ASM1153 SATA 3Gb/s bridge, ASM1153E SATA 6Gb/s bridge
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
nmcli with ssd just shows the loopback.eth0: connected to Wired connection 1
"Realtek RTL8152"
ethernet (r8152), 00:E0:4C:36:08:46, hw, mtu 1500
ip4 default
inet4 192.168.2.106/24
route4 192.168.2.0/24 metric 100
route4 default via 192.168.2.1 metric 100
inet6 fe80::8b4f:9664:7ce1:fdc7/64
route6 fe80::/64 metric 1024
lo: connected (externally) to lo
"lo"
loopback (unknown), 00:00:00:00:00:00, sw, mtu 65536
inet4 127.0.0.1/8
inet6 ::1/128
DNS configuration:
servers: 192.168.2.98
domains: lan
interface: eth0
Jordana describes a problem with this same ethernet chip: viewtopic.php?t=384541
He suggests creating a file /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/0bda:8151 to hold:
Code:
DefaultVendor= 0x0bdaDefaultProduct= 0x8151TargetProduct= 0x8153A similar problem (but with Bullseye) is also discussed here: https://dietpi.com/forum/t/ethernet-not ... grade/5752
His solution of adding ' net.ifnames=0' added to end of /boot/cmdline.txt also fails.
I have been suspicious of a power starvation problem but even the 1.7A claimed on the SSD label should be within the capability
of the 2.5A pi psu. To exonerate power, I have started again from scratch, re-imaged the SSD, applied both the above fixes,
powered the ssd from an external supply, connected via an old non-UASP/usb interface and performed a first boot. Exactly the same symptoms.
Why might ethernet work if I use an SD image but not the same image on an SSD?
Is there some nmcli magic I can apply?
My fallback situation is to mount the SSD to the working SD image or go for a pi5, but I have the bit between my teeth and I want to
get to the bottom of what I am sure is a software problem! Any advice appreciated.
Phil
Statistics: Posted by PhilBr — Fri Aug 01, 2025 4:27 pm