The USB ports on a ECS 755-A2 motherboard using a SIS-900 chipset (USB controller as reported by the kernel) fail to operate using the default installation of Knoppmyth R5B7. The problem is in the kernel because I get full functionality with Knoppix 4.0.2 (CDROM version) with 2.6.12 kernel

When plugging in a USB device (falsh drive), there is a kernel messge saying a device was detected but there is no subsequent action to create a device such as /dev/sda1. All the usual USB kernel modules are loaded such as usb-core and usb-storage.

In order to even get the kernel to boot I have to have the USB controller chip set to use the EDB vs PCI bus, otherwise it hangs about halfway through the kernel load process. This is not a factor with Knoppix 4.0.2.

I haven't built a custom kernel yet, but I'll try it later and see what happens.

Gus

I patiently await your solution.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Well, this isn't the first tme I've made a fool of myself in public, but my initial assesment is incorrect. The correct description of the problem should be that the high speed (USB 2.0 480Mbps) portion doesn't work.

It turns out that loading the ehci_hcd module (high speed usb) causes the USB to fail. The SIS 900 chip is for the ethernet, not USB. Not sure how I identified that, must have gotten my messages confused. Now I need to figure out if the problem is actually the software or my hardware.

Knoppix 4.0.2 does NOT load the ehci_hcd module by default and the board's USB works properly with the ohci_hcd module (full speed 12Mbps). I hadn't realized this until I started comparing loaded modules using the output of lsmod. The ehci_hcd module in regular Knoppix also fails.

My workaround for now is to prevent the ehci_hcd module from loading. I do that by blacklisting the module which will prevent the hotplug system from loading the module. Do this by editing /etc/hotplug/blackist and add ehci_hcd to the bottom of the file.

Gus

Looks like this problem is more widespread than just my report. See
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5835
for some more info.

Just to let people know, this problem is fixed with the 2.6.19 kernel. I tested it with Knoppix 5.1.1 and it works great. I can get full hard drive speed with the USB adapter.

With my hard drive (200GB Segate IDE) I can get about 27MB/sec transfer, USB or direct connect to IDE.

Gus