USB really sucks

doctorwebbox · 03-03-2005, 01:25 PM

Is USB really flakey through Linux is it just me? Everytime I attempt to use a USB device (different devices on different machines) they don't work and end up screwing the machine up, for example, disabling keyboard, hanging on shutdown, hanging on startup just freezing then and there. And if you do ever think you got it sorted, you leave it for 5 minutes, come back and it doesn't work anymore. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Is there a way of making it more reliable?

satinet · 03-03-2005, 03:11 PM

yeah, it's not always brilliant.

That said, in the 2.6.x kernel, it's pretty good, I find. Although udev isn't the finished article yet, it does a nice job of created the devices in /dev/

Can you be a little more specific with your problem(s) - or are you just annoyed! ;-)

doctorwebbox · 03-04-2005, 01:50 AM

I'm just annoyed, I have posted my problems seperately, they have been ongoing for some time. But thanks anyway.

pyenos · 03-04-2005, 02:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by doctorwebbox
I'm just annoyed, I have posted my problems seperately, they have been ongoing for some time. But thanks anyway.

i agree im so fed up with trying to make wlan usb work under linux i am verge of suicide. lord jesus.

pyenos · 03-04-2005, 02:19 AM

the problem seems to me that a device such as wlan usb device accesses pci port through some sort of bridge from usbcore. and it loads properly in 2.6.10 kernel but it doesnt present correct hardware id values to a relevant driver so it doesnt invoke proper action. in my 2.6.10 kernel it goes something like

/sys/device/bus/pci0000:0001:0072/usb1/0-1/

something like that. usb ids gives that matching my intel triton usb adapter instead of my actual network device. its so farked up.

oneandoneis2 · 03-04-2005, 03:18 AM

When I was looking into getting online with Linux, I looked into using USB for networking with Linux.

I realized it was a hideous, hideous thing, and our LAN hub just has four Ethernet jacks instead. Life's so much easier that way

For everything else, I have to say it works flawlessly, altho the number of entries I get in my syslog from plugging in a USB hard drvie is unreal. . .

Viro · 03-04-2005, 03:19 AM

I'm running kernel 2.6.11 on a Powerbook. Can't say I share your problems with USB. So far, everything (digital camera, mice, USB stick, USB hdd, printer) works nicely. All apart from the printer were autodetected and handled by DBUS and HAL. YMMV, of course

.

pyenos · 03-04-2005, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Viro
I'm running kernel 2.6.11 on a Powerbook. Can't say I share your problems with USB. So far, everything (digital camera, mice, USB stick, USB hdd, printer) works nicely. All apart from the printer were autodetected and handled by DBUS and HAL. YMMV, of course .

i use kernel 2.6.10 and i have problems with zydas wlan usb stick.

KimVette · 03-04-2005, 01:02 PM

USB in Linux can be a bit flaky. I run Suse 9.1 and I found that keeping the suseplugger program running in the background helps to achieve better USB reliability. Now if a device flakes out I can just "eject" and then "insert" it. See if your distribution has a similar utility.

alose · 03-04-2005, 04:55 PM

Well, Ihave Mandrake and a number of USB devices:

Multicard reader, Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Printer, Scanner, ThumbDrive, Cybershot Camera, Rio S600, ZaurusDock.

I do not have any problems with USB. And the Zaurus uses USB Networking.