SUSE / openSUSEThis Forum is for the discussion of Suse Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I'm running SUSE LINUX 9.3 Professional on an hp nx9600 notebook computer. Everything is running well, with the exception of my USB devices. None of my USB devices are being recognized. I've read about the hotplug settings for USB, but I'm not sure if I need to tweak these settings manually for my machine.
For example, I have an hp LaserJet 1012 printer, which is USB. The printer is not detected automatically when I connect the USB cable, either during bootup or while the system is running. If I try to add a new USB printer with YaST, I receive a warning saying that my "USB bus is not properly configured".
I also have a Lexar thumb drive, that when connected, does nothing. It seems as though the entire USB subsystem has not been "enabled" or activated. How can I determine if USB support is active?
If anyone can assist, it would be greatly appreciated.
Distribution: Fedora, Debian, OpenSuSE and Android
Posts: 1,820
Rep:
First type lspci at a command prompt. That should list all devices attached to the pci bus, including your USB controller. If it doesn't show the USB controller, look up what USB controller is used in your laptop either in the LQ HCL or at http://tuxmobil.org or at http://www.linux-laptops.net. Then you will need to load the module for the USB controller and try again.
I am able to load the modules for USB support. When the system is booting, I can see the messages being displayed about the USB bus, so I'm fairly certain that it is being recognized.
Whenever I insert a USB device when the machine is running, these entries appear in the system log. The "3-3" varies, depending on which physical USB port I'm using. It seems that the system attempts to increment the address number, but the number is continously rejected:
usb 3-3: new full speed USB device using address 2
usb 3-3: device not accepting address 2, error -110
usb 3-3: new full speed USB device using address 3
usb 3-3: device not accepting address 3, error -110
I have heard that some users were successful in correcting this problem by booting with the "acpi=off" kernel option. On my hp notebook, I must use the "acpi=ht" flag... otherwise, the system just hangs with a black screen. This notebook has hyperthreading technology on the processor, which I can disable in the BIOS. I've tried disabling hyperthreading in the BIOS, but the system hangs either way, if I don't boot with the acpi=ht option.
Distribution: Fedora, Debian, OpenSuSE and Android
Posts: 1,820
Rep:
Ok. So you know that the USB controller is working, albeit with errors, next insert a thumbdrive (or external hdd) and type the following and post the output.
Here is the output from both the lspci command and the "hwinfo --usb" command. Couldn't post the output from the "ls /dev/sd*" command because the resulting output was too long. Is there a specific device I should be looking for?
Distribution: Fedora, Debian, OpenSuSE and Android
Posts: 1,820
Rep:
Normally, I would be looking for the one that is different. On my system (below) I have 3 USB controllers, two hubs, and roughly 9 USB devices. When I plug in a thumbdrive into a port, I see it as the one that contains a number. This is not always the case, but it is always different enough to spot.
With the printer also not working I would suggest there is a deeper problem than the single device, more likely something wrong with the controller. The fact that the printer is not listed in your output above (was it plugged when you ran this) even as an unknown device, is troublesome. I am stumped. Maybe someone else has an idea here. SuSE normally has really good USB hardware support from my experience (9.0-9.3).
I agree that it is likely something in the controller or hardware of the notebook. I also installed 9.3 on an IBM Desktop (NetVista 2284), and everything went perfectly. If I insert the thumb drive in the IBM box, the device is immediately recognized and accessible, with no problems. Also, the printer is recognized, as is the modem and network adapter. Everything works as expected, without any tweaking or overriding of kernel parameters.
The fact that everything works so well on the desktop machine makes the failures on the notebook even more frustrating, since the notebook is my primary computer and the one I use most often. I am trying very hard to move to a pure LINUX desktop, but these issues are very discouraging...
As a side note, I've done some additional testing with a new install on the notebook. If I start a new installation with the "ACPI=OFF" kernel parameter, the activity indicator on the thumb drive remains dark while the "Activating USB devices..." is displayed. If I cancel the installation and restart using the "ACPI=NOPCI" parameter, the drive blinks briefly during this phase. I also have a wireless, USB mouse that exibits the same behavior. The base unit remains dark with the first parameter, but blinks briefly with the second.
I fear that in order to get this resolved, I'll spend my time experimenting with a seemingly endless combination of boot-time parameters...
Distribution: Fedora, Debian, OpenSuSE and Android
Posts: 1,820
Rep:
Or try a different distro maybe? There are different levels of hardware detection among the different distros. Try Kubuntu (if you dig KDE) is my suggestion. It is pretty slick on the machine below, and so far has not had one issue with the hardware. I ditched SuSE 9.3 due to instability and slowness, and have not looked back since the Kubuntu64 installation.
If the hardware module in Yast shows your USB device (including it's assignment (sda1, sdb1, sde1, and so on.) - then you can disable subfs (supermount) and create the traditional entries in /etc/fstab. The key is to see if Yast has ID'd the device correctly (yast will tell you all that).
Why not contact Suse tech support - I would be surprised if they couldn't help you, especially since you've purchased the product. I've used Ubuntu and Kubuntu, they're good products but are not as stable or finished as Suse (especially Kubuntu).
Another thing you could try is several of the "Live" linux CD's so you can test your hardware before doing a full install. The ones I like are: PCLinuxOS, Kanotix, SLAX, and Mepis. But, because I'm stubborn, i would call Suse support.
I've already contacted them with the problem, and have been working with a certain technician in an attempt to resolve the issue. I submitted a support request via the SuSE Support Portal. They suggested the following:
1. Ensure the USB drivers are loaded at boot time (usb-uhci, usb-ohci, ehci-hcd). Confirmed that the modules are indeed being loaded.
2. Try both "pci=noacpi" and "acpi=off" boot-time parameters, as well as several other combinations. Tried all, with no result.
3. Ensure that interrupt assignment is activated in the BIOS for USB devices. Can't do that; my BIOS setup does not provide this option, nor does it provide for any settings that are ACPI-related.
At this point, I think my tech is "stumped". It's a very strange problem indeed. Yesterday, I performed a brand new installation using the "pci=noacpi" parameter during initial bootup. Both my wireless mouse USB base unit and thumb drive flashed briefly during installation, but neither was accessible after the install was finished. In the system log, I see tons of entries like "did not accept address xx", "error -110". I think that the OS is trying to assign IRQs or something to that effect, and the controller is rejecting the request.
I also see this message after inserting a device...
kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: Unlink after no-IRQ? Different ACPI or APIC settings may help.
I don't think that the problem is specific to SuSE. I've read other posts with people experiencing these same errors using Fedora and Mandrake as well. If you Google on "not accepting address" and "-110", you get plenty of results...
I've been working with PC hardware and OS setup for quite some time, and in this situation, I get the feeling that I'm "very close". I'm stubborn too, and hate to give up on it.
You might try to update your bios and other firmware drivers that are provided by HP. I see there are several revisions for drivers, . . . . perhaps one of these updates will help.
It may seem unrelated to your problem but I would definitly try to make my own kernel, generic kernel that comes with suse might not be used properly with your hardware...so make your own .config file, and be sure that u selected usb-ohci, usb-ehci, usb-uhci and usbcore as modules, u better compile hotplug into the kernel image
Thanks... I'll download the updates from the hp website.
As for rebuilding the kernel, is that a complicated process? What is the difference between building the USB drivers into the kernel, vs. loading them with modprobe?
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
Maybe someone else has an idea here. SuSE normally has really good USB hardware support from my experience (9.0-9.3). 
