External USB2 Drive: Large File Transfer Stalls

randomi · 05-06-2004, 11:38 PM

Hello, and apologies ahead of time for what looks like a relatively common question.
However, I was unable to find any suitable answer which fit my situation precisely. I have an external Maxtor OneTouch Drive (120gb) formatted in fat32. I am able to mount the drive fine using

Code:

mount -r /mnt/sda1 /mnt/usb

(used -r in case write was part of problem), and copying small files works without incident, but when copying large files, the speed drops and then the drive is no longer detected by the system.
The drive does seem to be using

Code:

ehci_hcd

, so I don't think its simply usb1.1 being used instead of 2. Any and all help appreciated, thank you ahead of time, and I will gladly post more info as requested.

~ri

Relevant parts in /var/log/messages:

Code:

May  6 22:25:10 randomi ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0
May  6 22:25:10 randomi ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: irq 21, pci mem e1813000
May  6 22:25:10 randomi ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
May  6 22:25:10 randomi ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Dec-29
May  6 22:25:10 randomi hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
May  6 22:25:10 randomi hub 1-0:1.0: 6 ports detected
May  6 22:25:10 randomi USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2

...
(using gentoo with love-sources 2.6.6-rc3)

Code:

May  6 22:25:10 randomi Vendor: Maxtor    Model: OneTouch          Rev: 0200
May  6 22:25:10 randomi Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
May  6 22:25:10 randomi SCSI device sda: 240119808 512-byte hdwr sectors (122941 MB)
May  6 22:25:10 randomi sda: assuming drive cache: write through

Update: After trying several different solutions, had friend hook up drive to his windows machine. Got some of the files off, but it turns out that drive had quite a bit of corruption. Score: Linux 1, Maxtor 0

Electro · 05-07-2004, 02:50 AM

I get the same problem with a different USB brand but I think it is mostly a problem with the usb module or a buffer overflow problem in the kernel. It could be a problem when LINUX is trying to defrag some files to make the drive more efficient. I just ignore it because it did not corrupt any data during the process. For USB storage device I use the sync option to make sure the data that I have written to the USB device is not waiting in the buffer.

I have not done large file copies to my USB hard drives for a while. What does dmesg show.

randomi · 05-07-2004, 06:15 AM

Thank you for your fast response. All sections seemingly relevant from dmesg are below.

Code:

ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: irq 21, pci mem e1813000
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Dec-29
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found

...

Code:

ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: irq 21, pci mem e1813000
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Dec-29

...

Code:

Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.

....

Code:

usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using address 2
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
  Vendor: Maxtor    Model: OneTouch          Rev: 0200
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
SCSI device sda: 240119808 512-byte hdwr sectors (122941 MB)
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
 /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0,  type 0
USB Mass Storage device found at 2

parikkala · 08-20-2004, 02:57 AM

Maybe there is something more up to it since I have encountered the same problem you mentioned in Suse Linux 9.1 AND Windows XP Home Edition. Under Windows I have tried to install a bunch of different devide drivers by different companies without any luck...

In fact I think it is an issue related in some way with the NEC usb2 pci card because my mother has the same problem on his computer with the same expansion card as me but not without the onboard usb2.

Any opinion?

Thanks
Bye
Antonio