USB2 very slow...

[danielgww]

Hi @ all

I am using a external HDD, an USB Stick and an USB Card Reader with my SD Card for a while now on my HP Mini running Kubuntu 9.04. The writing Speed on all that devices it about 10 MByte/Sec.

Now I got a desktop PC with Intel Code2Duo 2,8 GHZ and Asus P5KPL-AM SE also with Kubuntu 9.04. Somehow the writing speed with all 3 devices went down to about 1MByte/Sec. It's just like USB1.

Does anybody know, how to make it work on the Speed that USB2 is supposed to work?

[mfabry]

Re: USB2 very slow...

IMO something is wrong with Linux USB support. It's just not only speed, but also high CPU usage - something I have no problem with on Windows. The bigger the files, the more of them - the more trouble.

[larbac]

Re: USB2 very slow...

Hi

I was going to post a new topic with the same subject..

I'm trying to move 900mb file to my pendrive, and it takes forever (20min almost). This is not normal...

Any way to solve this??

[ukchucktown]

Re: USB2 very slow...

A lot of things can influence speed. One suggestion is run hdparm -t <device> on the different machines to get a benchmark. There are better tools for measuring disk performance but hdparm will at least tell you if there's a real problem. I have an external drive (7200 RPM WD Scorpio) and I get about 28 MB/sec when running hdparm -t /dev/sdb.

dev/sdb:
Timing buffered disk reads: 86 MB in 3.03 seconds = 28.40 MB/sec

[kevinc]

Re: USB2 very slow...

As a matter of interest, I did some timed tests with a computer running dual boot Windows and Kubuntu. I wanted to see the difference in using truecrypt on windows and dm-crypt on linux and tested them on two files of 650 MB, using hard disk and USB flash disk and the results were within a few percent, or, the difference between the two OS's were less than the difference running the same test on the same OS a few times to get an average.

I have found different USB devices vary greatly in speed, depending on the type of memory in them. I bought a very cheap 2GiB flash disk in 2007 and it was so slow on any computer. I have a 4GB flash disk which cost much more in 2006 and is still working at equally fast speed on all versions of Kubuntu.

[danielgww]

Re: USB2 very slow...

It's just not normal that my desktop that is much faster than my HP Mini is 10x slower in reading the same USB device!

[kjjjjshab]

Re: USB2 very slow...

Are you using the rear USB ports or the MB headers? Any difference if you switch it up?

[danielgww]

Re: USB2 very slow...

There was no difference. Both run the same speed.

Just made the speed test: 54 MB in 3.01 seconds = 17.97 MB/sec. It sounds good, but when I copy files, it looks a lot slower (600MB/10Min).

Don't know why that!

[kevinc]

Re: USB2 very slow...

Try this. Start your computer (Desktop PC), when fully running, insert each of your USB devices, then check your log files (either Kmenu > system > system logs viewer OR /var/logs/ )

The log should tell you if each device is being recognized as a USB 2.0 or not. With the relatively new ASUS P5PKL you should have USB 2.0

You could also try one device, such as external HDD in each of the USB ports to check if it is a problem with one or more ports. The external HDD should have a faster transfer rate and it should not make a difference if 600 MB or 6MB, but with a flash disk it can make a difference due to different types of memory in the flash disk - small files especially when the disk is empty copy fast, but big files when the disk is nearly full can be very slow.

[larbac]

Re: USB2 very slow...

Hi

I have done what you told and I get this result. I can't find anything about USB 2.0
Can you see if it's correct?


2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.616231] usb-storage: device scan complete
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.616836] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access takeMS Mem-drive Mini 8.07 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.619196] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] 8235008 512-byte hardware sectors: (4.21 GB/3.92 GiB)
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.619692] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.619694] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.619696] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.623383] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] 8235008 512-byte hardware sectors: (4.21 GB/3.92 GiB)
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.623948] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.623950] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.623953] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.623964] sdd:
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.776686] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk
2009-08-01 09:55:32 Nuno-Linux kernel [72550.777624] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0

[kevinc]

Re: USB2 very slow...

Your output looks alot like mine - see below.

This is from my syslog or kern.log file after inserting a USB 2.0 flash disk.

Aug 1 19:56:18 jj kernel: [ 104.052075] usb 1-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
Aug 1 19:56:18 jj kernel: [ 104.189575] usb 1-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Aug 1 19:56:18 jj kernel: [ 104.279679] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Aug 1 19:56:18 jj kernel: [ 104.285921] scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Aug 1 19:56:18 jj kernel: [ 104.288902] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Aug 1 19:56:18 jj kernel: [ 104.288911] USB Mass Storage support registered.
Aug 1 19:56:18 jj kernel: [ 104.289997] usb-storage: device found at 3
Aug 1 19:56:18 jj kernel: [ 104.290002] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
Aug 1 19:56:23 jj kernel: [ 109.288743] usb-storage: device scan complete
Aug 1 19:56:23 jj kernel: [ 109.290013] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access OTi Flash Disk 2.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.356366] ready
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.356986] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 256000 512-byte hardware sectors: (131 MB/125 MiB)
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.357728] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.357734] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.357738] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.361865] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 256000 512-byte hardware sectors: (131 MB/125 MiB)
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.362603] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.362608] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.362613] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.362620] sdb: sdb1
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.363836] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
Aug 1 19:56:24 jj kernel: [ 110.363956] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Aug 1 19:56:27 jj hald: mounted /dev/sdb1 on behalf of uid 1000

What you have pasted shows a 4G stick. The next line on yours will probably show it being mounted as
/dev/sdd or whatever the next disk is. I can't see any problems in yours to suggest why it is slow, especially when you know the device works much faster on another machine, with the same OS - Jaunty. I'm puzzled.

[larbac]

Re: USB2 very slow...

Hi Kevinc

I only use it on Jaunty in 1 pc, the others run M$hit Windows...

[caveneo]

Re: USB2 very slow...

I've been told that you must set the usb mode to asynchronous to get better speed. But I can't find any menu with that option, to change it from Synchronous toy asynchronous! Anyone know?