Hi,

I'm trying to get a Alcatel Speedtouch ADSL USB modem to work under Mandrake 9.1 and having no luck. I have also tried to get a Microsoft Trackball Optical (USB) to work but also with out any luck. The trackball works fine if I use the PS2 port, but not if I'm connecting it via a USB port. Both works perfectly under Windows XP.

When I boot, the modem is blinking red until the USB stuff is loaded, then it is black and seems to not have any power. The same happens with the trackball.

I saw somewhere a post for Mandrake 9.0 suggesting booting using "linux noapic". When I tested doing this the modem kept blinking red until I rebooted and it gave some error messages so I have discarded that idea

An extract from /var/log/messages during the boot (not the noapic, the normal one):

Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hub
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xd4932000, IRQ 20
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb-ohci.c: usb-00:02.2, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: hub.c: USB hub found
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: hub.c: 3 ports detected
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xd4934000, IRQ 23
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb-ohci.c: usb-00:02.3, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (#2)
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: hub.c: USB hub found
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: hub.c: 3 ports detected
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usbdevfs: remount parameter error


If I unplug either of the trackball or the modem and then reconnect it, I get the following in /var/log/messages:


Apr 20 19:43:19 localhost kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:02.3-2, assigned address 4
Apr 20 19:43:24 localhost kernel: usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
Apr 20 19:43:24 localhost kernel: usb-ohci.c: unlink URB timeout
Apr 20 19:43:24 localhost kernel: usb.c: USB device not accepting new address=4 (error=-110)
Apr 20 19:43:24 localhost kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:02.3-2, assigned address 5
Apr 20 19:43:29 localhost kernel: usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
Apr 20 19:43:29 localhost kernel: usb-ohci.c: unlink URB timeout
Apr 20 19:43:29 localhost kernel: usb.c: USB device not accepting new address=5 (error=-110)

I really want, at least partially, to start using Linux, but this is almost identical to my last attempt around 1999 and it isn't really encouraging...

Any suggestions would be very welcome.

//Krister

For the mouse, I'm not sure, one thing is that you have XFree86 configured right now for whatever you installed with, so if you had a ps/2 mouse hooked up for install, that's what its configured for... There are some gui tools in mandrake to hack-up X-windows, if those don't let you switch the mouse type, post back and I'll show you what file to hack up by hand.

The Alacatel USB modems are supported, but are a far far cry from plug and play. Ethernet over USB is a bit of a kludge really and no one has really pushed for DSL modem drivers to be put in the kernel. You'll have to track down the drivers online, or alternatively just search here for "alcatel usb dsl" and you'll be able to track down the home of the drivers somewhere.

Cheers,

Finegan

Hi,

I don't really care that much if I get the mouse to work, it was mostly to test the USB stuff.

The latest drivers for the Alcatel Speedtouch are included in Mandrake 9.1 in the form of a RPM and the installation wizard has a specific selection for that. As far as I can see everything is installed correctly. I also installed speedtouchconf and refined all the settings before I realized that the kernel never acknowledges the USB peripherials.

I don't believe the problem is the modem or the drivers or any settings I have done. It looks more to me like the kernel can't handle my USB hardware. I'm having a HP Pavillion with two "SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controllers", each with two USB contacs, so in total 4 USB ports. The IRQs used by the kernel are the same used by Windows XP.

I tried booting with the installation CD and re-entered all the information of mouse etc and set it up as a USB mouse but I couldn't even complete the testing of the buttons. The trackball also seemed to be without power at that time.

Cheers,
Krister

Krister, I agree with you "kernel can't handle my USB hardware".

I run Mandrake 9.1 on an old Dell Pentium3, and my Alcatel modem runs just fine after I followed Benoit's installation instructions.

But I cannot get it to work on another PC (Gigabyte GA-8ST800 motherboard with a Pentium 4) with exactly the same on-board USB controller(s) as you have: I have SiS7001 x 3ports and SiS7002 x 1 port. The 7002 seems to do USB 2.0, and the 7001 USB 1.1. Shouldn't matter as the Alcatel is USB 1.0 or 1.1 I am getting the same messages in /var/log/message.

I'd like to PM you to see if you solved the problem, but can't. I am ready to go and buy a PCI USB controller, and disable the on-board one, but I wouldn't know how to configure it! Maybe there is a workaround. Did you fix it?

Best wishes,

tredegar

Have you installed the app "usbview"? If you have, open a terminal and type usbview - it will show you if your usb hardware is detected. If this gives an error - no such app - then su to root, and type urpmi usbview. It will ask you for a Mandrake cd and install the app. Then type usbview.

Fixed it:

Maybe my motherboard cannot "Disable PnP OS" in the BIOS properly.

To get the SiS7001/2 to work, I needed to add pci=BIOS to my boot string. I did this by editing etc/lilo.conf, and then doing /sbin/lilo (as root).

Now the USB works properly, and I can use the Alcatel.

Hey folks. I'm a new user here. While trying to resolve my usb issues in Mandrake 9.1 I found this thread. The message that mentioned the 'noapic' boot was right on! I've been playing with this issue for a week or two now with no progress until today. Ths issue for me is that my usb card reader works flawlessly when running Redhat 9, by default, but not in Mandrake 9.1. Thanks to you folks it does now! I stuck the 'noapic' option in my 'append=' line in lilo.conf and viola! Sweet!

Thanks a million

Glennzo

I am having a similar problem in Mandrake 9.1 not being able to mount my USB card reader. It is getting detected and says attatched as sda in dmesg but I can't mount it for the life of me. I tried to add the "pci=BIOS" to my lilo like you did but when I try and run lilo -v -v it says unrecognized token "pci". Any help is greatly appreciated.

Bigcletus,

I am no longer in posession of the motherboard with the SiS7001/2 - it's at my brother's, so I cannot at the moment check exactly how I set up lilo for him, apart from my notes.(As I remember, the pci=BIOS bit goes inside the quotes on the append line of lilo.conf relating to the linux you are loading). However, my problem was that I couldn't get usb to work at all with Mandrake 9.1 before I added that bit to the boot string. It sounds to me as though you may have a different problem.

Have you tried usbview? -See carlywarly's post in this thread.

It tells you useful stuff about what is connected to the USB.

You might also look at the output from

$dmesg

and

#cat /var/log/messages

Hope this helps.

tredegar,

Thanks for your reply. Usbview does show the card reader which is very odd considering I can't mount it. Dmesg does list it as "attached sda...". /var/log/messages complains something about cannot read partition on block device sda...I think this is where my problem lies. I have a USB scanner and that works perfectly with mdk 9.1 so maybe the pci=BIOS line would not help me anyways.

A couple of other strange problems occur when I try to scan for the usb/scsi bus. If I issue cdrecord -scan (think that’s it) it will list my CDR but then it locks up the console with no way of recovering the console other than switching to another. The same thing happens when I use the sg3_utils package. It will list my burner but then lock up afterwards.

At this point, I am thinking about doing a complete reinstall and leaving the card reader attached during install to see if that helps any. Thanks again for the help.

Just wanted to post an update on this as it may prove usefull for someone else in my position.

Strangely enough, plugging the card reader in without media in the drive would actually create an entry /dev/sda, which never happened before with the card in the drive. If I tried to mount it without a card in the drive, the light would flash on the card reader as it would try to mount it. After not finding a card in the drive, it would spit out a ton of errors in /var/log/messages and end up with an I/O error. If I then put the card in the drive and tried to mount it again, it would lock up the console.

I then decided to directly plug my camera in to the computer with the USB cable that came with it. I was able to mount it and it worked perfectly after a few adjustments in /etc/fstab I could access the files on the card.

I have come to the conclusion that my card reader is a piece of garbage. It did not work on two different linux boxes (one Red Hat 7.2, the other MDK 9.1). Also, when I first bought it, it crashed my XP box to the blue screen of you know what. I was only able to get it working in XP with Win2k drivers after a lot of fiddling. It is a Simpletech Flashlink ucs-200 and is reported as a Datafab something by linux. If anybody has one of these and has been able to get it to work good in linux, I would be interested in hearing about it.

Krister, here is your problem:
(from your /var/log/messages)

Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xd4932000, IRQ 20
Apr 20 18:09:47 localhost kernel: usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xd4934000, IRQ 23

Linux does not like IRQs above 16; those listed above have been allocated above 16 because APIC is enabled in the BIOS. Either disable APIC in the BIOS (this might upset the Windows side if you are dual-booting) or add 'noapic' to the 'append =' line in lilo.conf (or the 'kernel =' line in Grub).

You should also make sure that you disable PnP OS in the BIOS. Other installation tips are here:

http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/install.html

Especially important are those concerning BIOS settings.