Rock-solid USB ethernet adapters?

[Mark Carroll <mtbc%ixod.org@localhost>]

Still trying out NetBSD 8.0 on an old Intel Broadwell NUC. I've been
running into odd issues with USB ethernet adapters that run for a while
then stop until reboot. For example, one reporting as,

aue0: corega K.K. (0x7aa) corega FEther USB-TXS (0x0d), rev 1.10/1.01, addr 3

acphy0 at aue0 phy 1: ACXXX 10/100 media interface, rev. 0

would soon start reporting,

aue0: watchdog timeout
aue0: usb error on tx: TIMEOUT

and not work thereafter. Much less frequently I'm also seeing the same
issue with an RTL8153 adapter reporting as,

cdce0: Realtek (0xbda) USB 10/100/1000 LAN (0x8153), rev 2.10/30.00, addr 3

cdce0: watchdog timeout
cdce0: usb error on tx: TIMEOUT

I don't know if seeing this from two quite different adapters suggests a
USB issue more than a network adapter driver issue, nor if there are any
USB-related options I should try applying via sysctl or whatever, even
via the BIOS.

Still, it's easy to change the plug-in adapter. I thus wondered if
there's some easily obtained USB ethernet adapter that is well-known for
being rock solid with NetBSD in case I should just try one of those. If
spending a little money is likely to fix the problem then that's fine
with me. I don't have demanding requirements, the adapter doesn't have
to be a recent model or highly performant so long as it works fine.

Incidentally, I also tried an adapter with an ASIX AX88179 on it that
the axen driver recognized but that promptly drops the carrier. That,
I'm happy to mail to any developer who wants to experiment with it.

I'll also try to get around to trying a more up-to-date NetBSD to see if
any recent changes fix the issue.

-- Mark