USB 3.0 support intermittent

[Objekt]

There is something very screwy with USB 3.0 support in Kubuntu 11.10 x86. About half the time, after logging in, an external hard drive connected via USB 3.0 does not appear. It's as if I didn't have the drive connected at all. It definitely is connected, and powered on. Cycling power on the external drive does not make it appear. It does not appear either in Dolphin, or in the KDE Partition manager.

Additionally, the USB 3.0 host does not show up in the list of hardware. I'm running Windows 7 now but I'll post the output of lshw later.

The USB ports are on a PCI Express 2.0 1x card, which works fine under Windows and worked fine with Ubuntu 10.04 as well.

[Objekt]

Re: USB 3.0 support intermittent

Well this just keeps getting weirder.

I did a test yesterday, restarting 5 times in a row. Alternately, the USB 3.0 drive was recognized and not recognized, then it was not recognized twice in a row. So the problem is somewhat random, but occurs about half the time.

Looking at lshw output, the USB 3.0 card does seem to be recognized. Meanwhile, sometimes the USB 3.0 external drive isn't recognized either in Dolphin or KDE partition manager.

lshw output can be rather verbose, so I'll concentrate on the most relevant part. I can post the rest later, if it would help. Anyway, when the USB 3.0 drive is recognized, here's the entry in lswh:

*-pci:1
       description: PCI bridge
       product: 82X38/X48 Express Host-Secondary PCI Express Bridge
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 6
       bus info: pci@0000:00:06.0
       version: 01
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pci pm msi pciexpress normal_decode bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=pcieport
       resources: irq:297 memory:fe600000-fe6fffff
      *-usb
        description: USB Controller
        product: uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller
        vendor: NEC Corporation
        physical id: 0
        bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
        version: 04
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 33MHz
        capabilities: pm msi msix pciexpress xhci bus_master cap_list
        configuration: driver=xhci_hcd latency=0
        resources: irq:16 memory:fe6fe000-fe6fffff

Section of interest regards the "uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller." No surprise that it appears under pci enumeration rather than usb, as the card occupies a PCI Express 2.0 1x slot.

When the USB 3.0 external drive doesn't appear, here's the analogous entry in lshw:

*-pci:1
       description: PCI bridge
       product: 82X38/X48 Express Host-Secondary PCI Express Bridge
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 6
       bus info: pci@0000:00:06.0
       version: 01
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pci pm msi pciexpress normal_decode bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=pcieport
       resources: irq:297 memory:fe600000-fe6fffff
      *-usb
        description: USB Controller
        product: uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller
        vendor: NEC Corporation
        physical id: 0
        bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
        version: 04
        width: 64 bits
        clock: 33MHz
        capabilities: pm msi msix pciexpress xhci bus_master cap_list
        configuration: driver=xhci_hcd latency=0
        resources: irq:16 memory:fe6fe000-fe6fffff

That's right, the lshw output is exactly the same in both cases. It's just that about half the time, the USB 3.0 drive simply doesn't get recognized.

Going to do some more testing later, for example to see whether physically disconnecting/reconnecting the external drive makes any difference. Not expecting a miracle. In any case, the USB 3.0 external drive should appear in Dolphin, or at least be seen in KDE Partition Manager. Don't know what's going on here.

[fermier]

Re: USB 3.0 support intermittent

On one of my PC's I am still using 9.04 (hey I know I am using old stuff!) Anyway, from time to time I would get that a USB 2.0 drive is not recognised. One of the ways to see whether the device is seen, is using:

sudo fdisk -l

See whether in the output your drive is listed (you will have to recognise it from the partitions and sizes). Mine always was here even when it was not detected in Dolphin or the normal KDE pop-up on external drives. This indicated that the problem was actually higher up in KDE.

I have everything set up to upgrade this PC from 9.04 to 11.10 and one of the main justifications is that I wanted to finally use my USB 3.0 card and external drives, but if this is a problem... :-(

[Objekt]

Re: USB 3.0 support intermittent

Tried fdisk, similar result. Despite the USB 3.0 controller being listed in lshw, the connected USB 3.0 drive does not appear sometimes. It does not matter if I either cycle power on the external drive, or physically disconnect/reconnect the USB 3.0 cable.

By the way, the external drive is 3 TB, which fdisk detects but complains about (because it is a GPT-partitioned disk), saying I should use "GNU parted" instead. I don't know how to use "GNU parted" at the command line (the message from fdisk doesn't tell me the actual command name).

[fermier]

Re: USB 3.0 support intermittent

Sorry, got bogged down, so could not reply.

Ok, so if the error exists even at the level of fdisk then there may well be an error and it is probably time for a bug report...

I am surprised to learn that fdisk tells you to use gparted! The reason why I use fdisk is because I do not like gparted.

I guess running it from the commandline can be found here:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/displ...-from-cmd-line

[Objekt]

Re: USB 3.0 support intermittent

fdisk says it cannot deal with GPT-partitioned disks, yet it correctly reports the volume size (3 TB) and other information.

This definitely does seem like a bug, and a regression at that. How disappointing. I only used my USB 3.0 devices briefly with Ubuntu 10.04, but I never noticed a similar problem there.

Considering this, and the other problems I've had with Kubuntu 11.10, I'm just about ready to reinstall Ubuntu 10.04. It may not have had KDE, but it at least worked (mostly!) and will be supported for a good while.

[oshunluvr]

Re: USB 3.0 support intermittent

You can use gdisk if you prefer command line disk management of GPT disks.

[Objekt]

Re: USB 3.0 support intermittent

I applied the most recent updates, but my USB 3.0 external drive still does not show up every time. It's extremely random. I just restarted 3 times in a row, and 2 out of 3 times, it's as if the disk weren't there.

I tried power cycling the external drive and also physically disconnecting/reconnecting the USB 3.0 cable at the port. No luck.

I also plugged the drive in a USB 2.0 port. The drive is recognized, but then I am not always allowed to remove it. Whenever I try to do so, clicking on the "eject" icon in either the tray notifier or Dolphin, I am told:

Could not unmount the following device: WD3TB. One or more files on this device are open within an application.

Which is not true - I haven't opened any files on it. But if I keep trying, eventually I am able to eject the drive.

Not sure if it matters, but it's a 3 TB disk formatted as one big NTFS volume.

I had none of these problems in Ubuntu 10.04, nor do I have them in Windows 7, which is why I'm fairly certain this isn't a hardware malfunction.

[Objekt]

Re: USB 3.0 support intermittent

Am I the only one having this problem? Really? Hard to believe. I found reports of other people having different USB problems. Just not this particular one.

Unfortunately, non-working USB 3.0 is a deal-breaker. I hate to just format and start over with an otherwise-working install, but if there is no fix for USB 3.0 support, I have no choice. Going to try Linux Mint 12 next.