hello im running redhat 9 on an intel celeron 2.00ghz now it seems if i have any usb device plugged in when red hat starts my comp just hangs on where it says "initialising usbcontroller(ehci-hcd ) any ideas please

We had a similar problem with rh8 on an intel mobo. In our case the problem was an incompatible usb controller module, and the fix was to change a line in
/etc/modules.conf
From:
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
To:
alias usb-controller uhci

Does the system also freeze if you plug in a usb device after startup is complete?

yes it allso freezesif i plug in a device after start up as well ill try ur idea and let u know if it works thanks
nige

I have the same problem in Mandrake 9.2, but I don't have that line in my etc/modules.conf file. The line that has a reference to usb reads:

probeall usb-interface usb-uhci ehci-hcd

Any ideas on how to fix this in Mandrake?
Thanks

Of course, I don't know if the same thing is causing your lock-ups, but the equivalent would be
probeall usb-interface uhci ehci-hcd
(changing "usb-uhci" to just plain "uhci"). FWIW, usb-uhci is described as the "Alternate (JE)" driver for uhci.

Well, I tried the change to the module.conf file.... still locks up on boot.

If it helps to diagnose, it freezes during the "finding module dependencies" boot up step
The error that comes up is: modprobe: modprobe: insmod pwc failed
and then it freezes.

pwc is a webcam module, right? i assume the module is installed... How about dependencies, like snd-usb-audio?
Module files may be located in
/lib/modules/(version)/kernel/drivers,
but that's for redhat.

If you can boot without the device plugged in, try
/sbin/depmod pwc
(again, that's for redhat) to see the dependencies.

Ok,
I found pwc.o.gz in /lib/modules/2.4.22-10mdk/kernel/drivers/usb

when I typed /sbin/depmod pwc, I got the following:

[root@localhost dad]# /sbin/depmod pwc
# module id=string
# pci module vendor device subvendor subdevice class class_mask driver_data
# isapnp module cardvendor carddevice driver_data vendor function ...
# usb module match_flags idVendor idProduct bcdDevice_lo bcdDevice_hi bDeviceClass bDeviceSubClass bDeviceProtocol bInterfaceClass bInterfaceSubClass bInterfaceProtocol driver_info
# module pattern
# ieee1394 module match_flags vendor_id model_id specifier_id version
# module id
[root@localhost dad]#

Not sure what any of this means.... Still a newbie, unfortunately. Can you help me decipher it? Thanks

Oops, i should have said
/sbin/depmod -n pwc
without the "-n" it writes its output to
/lib/modules/2.4.22-10mdk/modules.dep

I still don't have a clue what the output that I get means... what do I do with this information?
Thanks

That output seems to be depmod's generic output when no dependencies are missing. i've mostly only dealt with external drives, so i'm no great expert on this. Sorry i couldn't help!

hello kgodbey
iv been away so could not reply to original post this is what my
/etc/modules.conf looks like

alias usb-controller -usb-ohci
alias usb-controller1 ehci-hcd
alias sound-slot-0 i810_audio
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
alias eth0 bcm4400
r u suggesting i simply remove the word usb from my first line
thanks nige

(i assume that first line is a typo, should be usb-ohci instead of -usb-ohci)

As i said, you may be having a different problem, but the analogous change in your case would be to add a line:

alias usb-controllern uhci

The problem we saw was that the "usb-uhci" driver was incompatible with our hardware, so we needed to specify the "uhci" driver. As far as i know, "usb-ohci" cannot be replaced with "ohci".

It's a bit confusing, but basically, uhci, usb-uhci, and usb-ohci are drivers for various USB 1.1 chipsets, while ehci-hcd is the driver for USB 2.0. If you have a device that needs a particular driver, it can freeze the system if that driver isn't present when it initializes.

hello i tried adding the line
"alias usb-controllern uhci"
this had no success as i still have exactley the same problem if any 1 has any more ideas i would appreciate it thanks nige

hello i am really confident some one out there knows the answer to my problem i am really desperate to understand why my computer freezes when i plug in a usb device my "modules.conf "file know looks like this
alias usb-controllern uhcialias usb-controllern uhci
alias usb-controller usb-ohci
alias usb-controller1 ehci-hcd
alias sound-slot-0 i810_audio
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
the top line "alias usb-controllern uhci" is the line i added as suggested i appreciate any more replys that might possibly help me out thankyou
nige