2.5 GBit/s Ethernet adapter for LibreELEC?

    Hello, as 2.5 GbE adapter is becoming more common I kindly want to ask if there are 2.5GbE adapters that are supported in LibreELEC? As I see the most cheap USB 3.0 2.5GbE ethernet adapters are based on the Realtek RTL8125B chip. I also have here 3 Odroid-N2+ with CoreELEC installed that have that RTL8125B driver installed and one of them has one attached. I read in another post there probably will not be any drivers in the official build. I do not know why? What is the problem? The vast majority of 2.5GbE USB3 ethernet controllers are RTL8125B based (have a look at Amazon)

    I think about buying a fanless x86 mini pc (Liva Z3) and to add an additional 2.5 GbE adapter. So it must not be a Realtek USB3 adapter (?), perhaps there is an Intel i225 2.5 GbE USB3.0 adapter that will work? Or another?

    In short, is there a USB3.0 2.5GbE ethernet adapter out there that will work out of the box with an x86 mini pc, e.g. the Liva Z3? Or 5GbE ? Any above 1GbE? Personally I do not want to search modified LibreELEC images which maybe outdated. Mainly because I established 2.5GbE here in my home.

    Michael :)

    The upstream kernel has support for the PCIe version of the RTL8125B adapter, but I'm not sure about USB. If it's supported it will either just work out of the box we can add the kernel config needed for that. If it requires and out-of-tree driver, you are welcome to self-compile an LE image with it included. If that's not your thing, we're sorry, but we have been refusing to add more crappy Realtek drivers to our images for about 2.5 years now and have no plan to go back on the decision. Including more of their shitty drivers in a distro like CE which never bumps kernel version isn't much drama. In LE where the kenel bumps frequently and Realtek drivers break with every bump .. the novelty of hunting down patches wears off (some time ago).

    NB: LE does not need "fastest" Ethernet speeds, although fast is never bad. We only need Ethenet to be "fast enough" and Gb is fast enough for 80GB disc rips, so it's not a high-demand topic. I've no idea about other 2.5Gb adapters, but we will have no issue enabling kernel config for any needed; under the same rules (in-kernel is good, out-of-tree is bad).

    Rebooting this thread:

    I can confirm the Simplecom USB to 2.5GBE Ethernet Adapter NU405C works 'out the box' on my test Intel NUC (LibreElec 12.2). Under $25 AUD (around 16USD maybe?)

    I can copy a 10GB MKV file to my NUC at 270MB/s over my 2.5GBE network using the adapter above. USB 3.0 (5Gbps port)

    I actually bought this for a CoreElec device that is sloowww (limited by its to 1GBE port). To be frank the eMMC drive is no more that 400MB/s compared to my NUCs 5000MB/s NVME SSD (NUC12).

    Edited once, last by HomerJau (February 8, 2026 at 6:51 AM).

    Quote from HomerJau

    Rebooting this thread:

    I can confirm the Simplecom USB to 2.5GBE Ethernet Adapter NU405C works 'out the box' on my test Intel NUC (LibreElec 12.2). Under $25 AUD (around 16USD maybe?)

    I can copy a 10GB MKV file to my NUC at 270MB/s over my 2.5GBE network using the adapter above. USB 3.0 (5Gbps port)

    I actually bought this for a CoreElec device that is sloowww (limited by its to 1GBE port). To be frank the eMMC drive is no more that 400MB/s compared to my NUCs 5000MB/s NVME SSD (NUC12).


    That adapter uses a Realtek RTL8156B chipset. I just tried a Realtek RTL8157 USB ethernet adapter with the latest nightly and it is not recognized. I wonder if we can get the LibreElec team to add support for the RTL8157 chipset ?


    Thanks,

    Jeff

    Quote from jbinkley60

    I wonder if we can get the LibreElec team to add support for the RTL8157 chipset ?

    The r8152 kernel driver shows signs of RTL8157 support so have a look at the system log for missing firmware messages. If that's all that's needed (or perhaps adding new USB id's) then it's trivial to add support.

    NB: on the flip-side if it needs a downstream/vendor driver we'll politely refuse; it needs to be supported upstream.

    Quote from chewitt

    The r8152 kernel driver shows signs of RTL8157 support so have a look at the system log for missing firmware messages. If that's all that's needed (or perhaps adding new USB id's) then it's trivial to add support.

    NB: on the flip-side if it needs a downstream/vendor driver we'll politely refuse; it needs to be supported upstream.


    This is all that I see in the logs when I plugin the adapter:

    Jun 17 13:42:12 Kodi-FR kernel: usb 2-3: new SuperSpeed Plus Gen 2x1 USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd


    Thanks,


    Jeff

    I picked up a cheap USB adapter with a Realtek RTL8156B chipset and it came right up.

    Jun 17 17:40:10 Kodi-FR kernel: usb 2-4: new SuperSpeed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
    Jun 17 17:40:10 Kodi-FR kernel: usbcore: registered new device driver r8152-cfgselector
    Jun 17 17:40:10 Kodi-FR kernel: r8152-cfgselector 2-4: reset SuperSpeed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
    Jun 17 17:44:58 Kodi-FR connmand[528]: Interface eth1 [ ethernet ] state is configuration
    Jun 17 17:40:10 Kodi-FR connman-vpnd[404]: eth1 {create} index 5 type 1 <ETHER>
    Jun 17 17:40:10 Kodi-FR connman-vpnd[404]: eth1 {update} flags 4098 <DOWN>
    Jun 17 17:40:10 Kodi-FR connman-vpnd[404]: eth1 {newlink} index 5 address 8C:AE:4C:B9:76:B6 mtu 1500

    Thanks,

    Jeff

    Quote from chewitt

    run lsusb -tv | paste and pastekodi and share the URLs please


    I left the 8156B adapter plugged in and added the 8157. That way I could keep the SSH session. Here are the URLs:

    lsusb -tv | paste

    lsusb -tv | pastekodi


    The log entries at the bottom of the Kodi logfile are where I plugged it in:

    Code
    Jun 18 07:11:09.998456 Kodi-FR kernel: usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
Jun 18 07:11:10.851771 Kodi-FR kernel: usb 2-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd


    Thanks,

    Jeff

    Code
    2026-06-17 06:29:45.745 T:807      info <general>: Running on LibreELEC (community): nightly-20260612-5c96e68 13.0, kernel: Linux x86 64-bit version 7.0.8

    Please bump to a current nightly as the RTL8157 changes I can see were merged for Linux 7.1 and are not present in Linux 7.0

    That worked. The RTL8157 came right up on the latest nightly. It is running at 2.5G and I saw 300MB/s transfer rates on a 2.5Gig switch port. This adapter can negotiate to 5Gig.


    Thanks,

    Jeff

    Quote from HomerJau

    There are 10GBE adapters too. I have a couple here working. I have a 10GBE network now. Newer NUCs support usb c at 40GBE.


    Yep. I have some of those and a 10Gig switch. I use the 2.5gig switch for clients and the 10gig switch for servers and network connections. I am happy to see LibreElec supporting the 8157 chipset now,


    Jeff