Can anybody answer me this? I have tried several Linux distro's lately. Knoppix, Morphix, Mandrake, Redhat and a few others. NONE, and i say again... NONE! - gets it right. Several of my newbie friends have quit linux lately saying "it's not ready" because of this. It's quite simply too pathetic that a format as popular as USB isn't supported properly. So much for innovation and "being ahead". Don't get me wrong, I'm nuts about this OS but I'm currently not using it, because of these issues. and i won't until it works without any BS. Does anybody here know why It's such a HURDle (sorry, couldn't help it)!

Something about Hardware manufacterers not making drivers for their USB products in Linux...



Also, I seem to have read somewhere that MS backs alot of the research/spending for USB development.

One more thing, usb support is in the kernel, if you are using a default kernel, depending on your distro, you might find that it doesn't include the right usb support needed for your particular hardware.

Any examples btw? Something giving you problems you'd like to ask about?

Cool

Linux always lags behind in hardware support because the hardware manufacturers release Windows drivers when they announce a new product but rarely write Linux drivers. Linux drivers have to be written by volunteers after they get hold of the equipment. In some cases the hardware manufacturer even refuses to release the technical specifications for the hardware and the Linux developer has to reverse engineer how the hardware works before he can start writing a driver.

USB support in Linux is fairly recent. The code is far from mature and yes, in its present state it is of mediocre quality. Have patience.

Since you use USB you could help Linux get better by finding bugs in the latest USB code and reporting them. To do this download the latest development kernel each time it is released. Set up a dual boot system with your stable kernel and the latest unstable kernel both installed. Try out every possible USB option that you can in the latest unstable kernel and file detailed bug reports about everything you find wrong. Such in the field testing would be a big help to the people developing USB support.

When the next unstable kernel is released, download it again and check to see if the bugs you reported got fixed.

http://www.kernel.org/

http://www.linux-usb.org/

http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/book1.html

Don't forget that some motherboards have buggy usb chipsets, take my kt7a for example, I have usb completely disabled on this board because of a buggy via usb implementation, OTOH, I have an old IBM aptiva that works great with usb, I use it for my networked usb printer and flatbed scanner.

Well, I don't really use USB for anything, except my printer and game controller, and both work just fine.

I have heard that it really needs work, though.

Buggy chipsets are a constant problem for Linux driver writers. A hardware designer will create a chipset with flaws in it. Then instead of redesigning the chipset he writes a Windows driver that adjusts for the hardware flaws. The combination of chipset and Windows driver works to spec.

When a Linux developer hits one of these flawed chipsets the hardware manufacturer will not release the specs for the hardware so the Linux developer first has to figure out how the chipset really works, warts and all. Then he has to program work arounds for the flaws. This is why some IDE chipsets work with a generic IDE kernel module and others have to have their own unique driver in order to run. I had a real run around with a manufacturer over their buggy add on PCI IDE controller card, which they denied was buggy in four different emails and phone calls. The kernel developers eventually solved my problem about a year after I bought the card. In the meantime I learned a lot about fsck.

I imagine that USB is in a similar state right now. But I don't have enough USB experience to have anything informative to say about USB.

kernel version 2.5 is supposed to do something about USB..

I agree re. all the previous comments on USB support with Linux, it's a bit like the chicken and egg situation - need more people leaning on the makers to do something about this OS when they write driver support at the start HOWEVER win98 had USB probs and so did xp when it emerged, chipsets etc are definitely at fault too. I had the worst scenario when I upgraded from 98 to xp - VIA mobo chipset, NVidia graphics card and SoundBlaster plus non supported modem ( sounds familiar )Eventually went back and over a period of time I've gone new mobo 100% Intel and reinstalled with no probs. Now overcoming Linux's modem choosiness but it's just another hurdle to overcome to keep this grey box called a PC ticking over the way you want it....

Hi there - thanx for the response.

When i try to boot my freshly installed Mandrake 9.1 system i get "modprobe: modprobe insmod hid failed" after "configuring devices". Not only that, whenever I try, I have to reinstall the USB drivers for my motherboard completely in windows xp, or else i can't choose wich system to boot in LILO! Even after that has been done, when i finally get to the log-in prompt in Mandrake after a zillion years, everything is frozen. All USB support in bios is set, and Flashing bios didn't help either. Does anybody here know a way around this, if i (or without!) arrange another mouse/keyboard? I searched the forums but didn't find anything quite matching this.

I also recently messed around with Morphix, and i noticed a key difference between the latest version and a previous version. The "usbkbd" and "usbmouse" modules are missing from the kernel! usbHID was supposed to do the trick, but apparently it doesn't... And what's really annoying is that in the previous version i didn't have these probs. I Googled around trying to find these modules to install them manually, so far i haven't had the luck

I also believe that M$ has a stake in this, since i have to sign a M$ agreement when reinstalling the usb 2.0 drivers in XP!

I managed to convert 7 people to Linux from M$ but so far 5 have returned because of probs with either usb or ATI (they don't even have drivers for xfree86 4.3.0 yet)! In that respect Nvidia rocks.

I'm currently trying to get Morphix/Debian to work. It uses kernel 2.4-20 xfs

I hope you can help.

stuff:
Gigabyte GA7 VAXP mobo (VIA kt400)
logitech dual optical USB mouse
compaq internet USB keyboard

You may have to do a kernel compile to get a kernel configured to your USB hardware. But that's the worst case.

Maybe somebody who uses USB on your distro can explain how to configure it.

OK,
I am having EXTREME troubles partitioning my hard draiive so that I can use 1GB of free space that is at the end of my hard drive. I have been into this problem for the last two week and NO ONE (at least On this forum) seems to have come up with an answer.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I AM GONNA LEAVE LINUX.Nopes: good things come out from collective efforts and patienece.
You have NOT give ANY example regarding the hardware that is not supported on Linux. I have a USB Lexmark Printer.
Whenever I plug it into my LInux box, NOTHING HAPPENS. BUt the beauty of this is that Linux takes care of it in the backgorund and whenever I want to print , the printer is there...no driver dics...no nothing needed...everythig is already in the Kernel.
So before giving your "resolutions" on Linux ,please give us an example and we will help you...


Hope that helps.....

Not entirely correct, DTre08.
I have both a USB flash drive and a Digital Camera that work fine. My USB mouse goes haywire, though, so I do not use it.
It is not so much that "Linux does not support USB" as the manufacturers of many USB devices do not support Linux. It is then left to some poor SOB who has one of the devices to attempt to make it work.
Now, you and your friends are free to stop using Linux due to the fact that your USB devices are not available, and to continue to support the companies that make this so. Hmmmm...
I prefer to attempt to realize what Linux can and can not do in reality, (Windows, too, for that matter.) and use what I prefer. Often people do not realize that threatining "Linux" to shape up misses the point.
If you are interested in Linux, I would reccomend dual booting. If you (or your friends) feel that Linux is unusable due to "lack of USB support" you are wise to not use it.
Good Luck.

Hi

Allow me to refer to my previous post to clarify things a bit

chem1 wrote:

"You have NOT give ANY example regarding the hardware that is not supported on Linux."

- In my previous post i mentioned the two devices at the bottom of the post. (perhaps my latest post wasn't up at the time you replied)

concerning my particular situation i wrote:

"I also recently messed around with Morphix, and i noticed a key difference between the latest version and a previous version. The "usbkbd" and "usbmouse" modules are missing from the kernel! usbHID was supposed to do the trick, but apparently it doesn't... And what's really annoying is that in the previous version i didn't have these probs."

I googled around and found some mailcorrespondence between Alan cox and a few others where he advocates removing the aforementioned modules, replacing them entirely with "usbhid" in default kernels. This is an extremely bad move since it completely whacks usb support for a lot of users devices (such as mine!) MY DEVICES USED TO WORK WITH OLDER KERNELS.

Now a lot of complete newbies have to recompile their kernels in order to get their usbdevices to work, because the default kernel doesn't support usb like it used to.

I think the critique i give is entirely justified. Changing the default kernel is ok, but getting too hasty about it can cause something like this. A person with a morbid sence of humor could call this a very annoying form of "Reverse engineering".