# 88178 Driver (axe) - attaching PHYs failed



## nscripta (Dec 10, 2014)

I'm new to the world of FreeBSD, I was hoping to use the built in application (ipfw) to build a network testing tool (mainly simulating packet delay). My preferred hardware is to use a Raspberry Pi, and have downloaded and copied the respective FreeBSD image. I require the use of two ethernet ports for the testing and have connected a Belkin USB Gigabit Adapt_e_r (F5D5055) to the RPi. On at least one occasion the RPi has correctly loaded the axe driver for the adapt_e_r, listed the interface with `ifconfig` and allowed network related com_m_ands to be used. However at least 95% of the time the driver is not successfully loaded, with a message stating 
	
	



```
axe0: attaching PHYs failed
```
 Removing and re-inserting the USB adaptor makes no difference, the same fail message is displayed.

I have subsequently tried a live CD version of FreeBSD with the same results (with multiple laptops). From searching online it appears there were issues in the past with this driver but indications are they have been resolved with the 88178 on the hardware compat_i_bility list. Has anyone experienced similar issues and resolved them? Are there any commands I can use to identify the reason for the failure?

Thanks in advance.

Stuart


----------

