Wondering why booting into XP fixes Linux problems?
 

Hello out there.
I have been on Redhat 9 for about a year and ever since moving across from XP I have had to keep another drive with XP installed for "emergency" boots to fix mysterious hardware issues under Linux.

I have 2 specific devices that just fade out after a random amount of time under Linux.
1. My modem (external serial 56k - Duxbury)
2. My Scanner (USB Vuego)

The problem is that any/all of these will be working fine - for days - when suddenly:
The modem stops working (when I try dial out it says "no carrier detected" *See note)
The Scanner will just "go away" - I don't know where. Xsane says it cannot detect it.

NOW THE MYSTERY! *Note = read this!
When I boot into XP (I don't even have to login) and then immediately restart and boot Linux the 2 devices work again.
BUT
If I simply restart the machine and boot from Linux --> Linux (i.e. reboot) the 2 devices are still missing in action!

Switching their power off for many hours has no effect.
Switching the PC off for hours and then on and direct into Linux, has no effect.
Moving the Scanner to another USB port, no effect.
Removing the serial modem, rebooting, shutting-down, replug modem, on: no effect.
Trying to dial-out later reports the same "No carrier detected" error - hence It's not a real error message, it's just a herring of sanguine hue.

The ONLY thing that works is to boot into Windows!
No how fu@#ed is that!?!?!?!

I have scoured Google for anyone else with a similar problem and have also asked on this forum before - to no avail.
Can anyone point me to a source of assistance? Perhaps I should move to another distro, or maybe Fedora?

Thanks
Biggles.

Info : KDE 3.1-10
Linux : 2.4.20-20.9
Machine : i686 (Athlon AMD)

Are you getting any output in dmesg about your USB subsystem when the problem occurs?

I wil post what I recorded the last time the scanner croaked:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
dmesg | grep USB:

ehci-hcd 00:10.3: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci-hcd 00:10.3: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Jan-22
hub.c: USB hub found
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xd000, IRQ 10
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xd400, IRQ 10
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
hub.c: USB hub found
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xd800, IRQ 11
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
hub.c: USB hub found
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
hub.c: new USB device 00:10.1-2, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x4a5/0x20b0) is not claimed by any active
driver.scanner.c: USB scanner device (0x04a5/0x20b0) now attached to scanner0
scanner.c: 0.4.12:USB Scanner Driver

Shows that the scanner is seen by linux and is set to 'scanner0'
- despite this, Xsane will not work.

scanimage -L:
-------------
device `snapscan:/dev/usb/scanner0' is a Acer FlatbedScanner22 flatbed scanner


sane-find-scanner:
------------------
# No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that
# you have loaded a SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter.

found USB scanner (vendor=0x04a5, product=0x20b0) at /dev/usb/scanner0
found USB scanner (vendor=0x04a5 [Color], product=0x20b0 [ FlatbedScanner 22])
at libusb:003:002 # A USB device was detected. This program can't be sure if
it's really # a scanner. If it is your scanner, it may or may not be supported
by # SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage.

# Scanners connected to the parallel port or other proprietary ports can't be
# detected by this program.


scanimage:
----------
[snapscan] download_firmware: No firmware entry found in config file
snapscan.conf.scanimage: open of device snapscan:/dev/usb/scanner0 failed:
Invalid argument


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

But what about the modem - that's serial!

The mystery continues...

Hi,

it sounds like your scanner needs a firmware upload.
(Check the sane-backend manpage for your scanner and the sane website)

Probably XP is doing this firmware upload in the beginning so it's not needed
after running XP....

Hope that helps

Uwe.j.s

uwejs - thanks. I don't really understand this 'firmware' thing, but from what you say it seems to be some extra data that the device needs that gets loaded. It's wierd, but hey! I'm only a human!

I have found the firmware for my scanner, and I await results.

My BIG problem is my modem. It still dies randomly and even strings like &f0 make no difference. It says "No carrier detected" and I cannot connect. I reboot into XP (I don't even log on!), reboot into Linux and suddenly the modem works again....

help :(

Hi,

sorry, I probably can't help you with your modem - I'm using ISDN..
But if it's an USB-Modem the reason might be the configuration of your
USB - System.

While looking at the configuration for your scanner I realized that you
have libusb _and_ the scanner.o module running. That should bring you
some trouble! Maybe it's the same for your modem??

You can turn off the libusb by commenting the line with the ubsdevfs in /etc/fstab
_or_ (the better solution) remove the module with something like modconf (or whatever kind of tools you find with your RH )

hope that help

uwejs

uwejs,
1. What is libusb? and scanner.o module?
2. My scanner is USB, so should libUSB be there? Just a guess :)
3. My Modem is a serial modem... :(

Thanks :D