USB not working

[dpharris]

Noname. I use Macs, mostly, but my only Mac keyboard is wireless. The only other keyboards I own are from older PCs and most often are noname ones.

Why should they not work? I was under the (naive?) assumption that these things are standard and interchangeable. They have worked with a RasPi, and the mouse with my various MacBooks.

David

[shodruk]

I recommend very standard USB keyboard and mouse, and using a powered USB hub.

[dpharris]

Thanks. I have tried a powered hub, no luck. I will use a serial-usb connection. There is obviously something wrong with the usb support.

David

[nickoppen]

I've had a bit of luck with a powered hub.

With the hub power plugged in I connected the hub's input to the usb port next to the HDMI port. The parallella powered up and started talking with the hub. I then connected the power lead to the power in socket. When I did this I heard my fan speed up so I think that the usb port was not providing all the power the board needed. So far this method has been repeatably successful.

I tried to use lsusb to check connected devices but I got:

linaro-nano:~> lsusb
unable to initialize libusb: -99
linaro-nano:~>

I believe that lsusb is part of usbutil but apt-get reported that usbutil was installed and up to date. I'm not sure what is going on there.

usb-devices reported:

linaro-nano:~/bin> usb-devices

T: Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=480 MxCh= 1
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0002 Rev=03.12
S: Manufacturer=Linux 3.12.0-g0bc9c3a-dirty ehci_hcd
S: Product=Xilinx PS USB EHCI Host Controller
S: SerialNumber=xusbps-ehci.0
C: #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub

T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=480 MxCh= 7
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=02 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=1a40 ProdID=0201 Rev=01.00
S: Product=USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
C: #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=100mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 1 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=02 Driver=hub

T: Bus=01 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=03 Cnt=01 Dev#= 4 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=058f ProdID=6387 Rev=01.04
S: Manufacturer=Generic
S: Product=Mass Storage
S: SerialNumber=70908BEA
C: #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=100mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
linaro-nano:~/bin>

The second device is my hub and the last device is a memory stick that I have attached to the hub.

[shodruk]

To use USB devices properly, I strongly recommend to enable devtmpfs.

http://elinux.org/Parallella_Speed_Up_U ... e_devtmpfs

[Bikeman]

Oh well...

USB worked for me most of the time, but after hours of operation it would sometimes just die. No keyboard anymore, no mouse. And now it seems completely dead, I cannot get it to work even after several boot cycles.

I'm not sure I want to fiddle around with it any longer, I guess I'll instead use a PC or one of my Rasberry Pis and access the Parallella via VNC, see for example viewtopic.php?f=48&t=1006&p=6620&hilit=vncserver#p6620

Cheers
HBE

[Sean S]

It seems that the USB on the Parallella is faulty. There are numerous posts in the forums of this problem. I would like to petition that Adapteva commit to providing a true understanding of the problem followed by a fix.

I have seen that an ECO was suggested to remove the Micrel chip and short pins 7 and 8 with a 0R resistor. This does not cure the problem. There is also a list of compatible USB devices. Using one of these does not guarantee that the problem is fixed. In addition, using a high power capable PSU does not fix the issue as well.

The Parallella board is a great initiative but please realize that there is a BIG issue with USB. THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED URGENTLY. I would like to know what Adapteva are doing in light of this problem and what the schedule is to fix it for once and for all.

PLEASE GIVE YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS A FIX FOR THIS ISSUE ADAPTEVA!

[shodruk]

I want to note that my Parallella's USB has no issue now.
It works perfectly with this configuration.

http://elinux.org/Parallella_Speed_Up_Ubuntu

[Sean S]

Hi Shodruk

Happy to hear that it is now working for you. Can you please let me know what symptoms you were experiencing with USB?

There are many people having problems with the USB and I think that Adapteva should give us a root cause analysis and provide a fix that will work for everyone - at least if they care about the many backers that supported them.

Cheers

[shodruk]

devtmpfs is the key.
devtmpfs is required for automatic device node creation (especially for USB devices).
Adapteva disabled devtmpfs by default, maybe because it is incompatible with serial console.
I think that Adapteva should disable serial console and enable devtmpfs by default, because we normal users don't use serial console and we even don't have a serial cable.
Serial console is necessary for Adapteva, but for us, USB usability and boot up stability are more important!!!!