USB Issue with Red Hat 9 (shrike) Installation on Lenovo T400

madsovenielsen · 09-30-2023, 04:01 AM

Hello fellow Linux enthusiasts,

I hope you're all doing well. I recently embarked on a nostalgic journey by attempting to install Red Hat 9 on my old Lenovo T400 laptop. This is purely an academic exercise, and I'm looking to challenge myself by getting this vintage operating system to run smoothly on this hardware.

I've encountered a peculiar USB issue during the installation process, and I'm hoping to tap into the collective wisdom of this forum to help me troubleshoot it. Here's the situation:

The USB Problem:
When I attempt to install Red Hat 9, I must disable "BIOS USB Support" in the BIOS to avoid the installer hanging on "Initialising USB Controller (ehci-hcd)."
With "BIOS USB Support" disabled, I can successfully boot into the installer, and USB devices (e.g., mouse, USB floppy drive) work during the installation process.
However, after installing the OS, USB functionality ceases to work. Although USB-related drivers, including ehci-hcd, are loaded, they do not seem to function as expected.

What I've Tried:
Loading ehci-hcd with modprobe, but it appears to have no effect.
Enabling "BIOS USB Support" causes the laptop to hang during startup on "Initialising USB Controller (ehci-hcd)."

My Request for Help:
I'm eager to find a solution that works in the current setup without necessarily upgrading to a newer version of ehci-hcd. If anyone has insights, suggestions, or debugging tips to help me get USB functionality working in my Red Hat 9 installation, I'd greatly appreciate it.

This project is purely for fun and learning, so I'm excited to delve into the world of vintage Linux. Your assistance and expertise are invaluable to me, and I look forward to your guidance.

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance!

Best regards

mrmazda · 09-30-2023, 08:04 AM

Did xorg-x11-drv-mouse and xorg-x11-drv-keyboard install? Does PS/2-connected keyboard or mouse work? I'm pretty sure libinput0 came long after Shrike. I just booted F14 Laughlin, where libinput0 is not installed. F14 here has no input setup in /etc/X11/xorg.con*, but it may still have been required in Shrike, which I might still have installed and bootable somewhere, if only I could find it.

Way back when, IRQ management in BIOS was sometimes required, and could be what you're up against:

Code:

# cat /proc/interrupts
            CPU0       
   0:        150   IO-APIC-edge      timer
   1:       1014   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
   8:          0   IO-APIC-edge      rtc0
   9:          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi
  14:      20534   IO-APIC-edge      ata_piix
  15:       8999   IO-APIC-edge      ata_piix
  16:        303   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb2, i915
  17:          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   Intel 82801DB-ICH4
  18:        426   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb4, eth0
  19:         27   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb3
  23:          2   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb1
 NMI:          0   Non-maskable interrupts
 LOC:      40697   Local timer interrupts
 SPU:          0   Spurious interrupts
 PMI:          0   Performance monitoring interrupts
 PND:          0   Performance pending work
 RES:          0   Rescheduling interrupts
 CAL:          0   Function call interrupts
 TLB:          0   TLB shootdowns
 TRM:          0   Thermal event interrupts
 THR:          0   Threshold APIC interrupts
 MCE:          0   Machine check exceptions
 MCP:          3   Machine check polls
 ERR:          0
 MIS:          0
# /usr/local/bin/inxi -SJa --vs
inxi 3.3.30-00 (2023-09-25)
System:
  Host: t2240.ij.net Kernel: 2.6.35.11-83.fc14.i686.PAE arch: i686 bits: 32
    compiler: gcc v: 4.5.1 clocksource: tsc available: acpi_pm parameters: ro
    root=LABEL=11fedora14 rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM
    LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us noresume selinux=0
    noplymouth vga=791 video=1440x900@60 5
  Desktop: KDE v: 4 wm: kwin dm: startx Distro: Fedora release 14 (Laughlin)
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-1:2 info: Kensington USB/PS2 Orbit type: mouse
    driver: generic-usb,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 1.1
    speed: 1.5 Mb/s (183 KiB/s) power: 100mA chip-ID: 047d:1022 class-ID: 0301
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
#

michaelk · 09-30-2023, 08:46 AM

In a VirtualBox VM RH 9 recognizes the USB 2.0 port and boots fine. If I select USB 3.0 support RH 9 still boots but I get the found new hardware menu (kudzu). If I select do nothing it continues to boot to the desktop.

VB does emulate a PS/2 port and keyboard and as posted what happens if you unplug all USB devices. I would of guessed the BIOS USB support was for allowing USB keyboard and mice support to access BIOS configuration settings and grub menu once the system starts to boot. When the OS is fully running then USB support falls back to the drivers.

I would try running a newer distribution like Ubuntu 8 (Hardy) that was known to work on the T400 and see if you have the same problems.
https://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/hardy/