USB issues with Ratel Performance

[jpfle]

Hi,

On my new Ratel Performance, I have 2 USB issues:

• My USB keyboard is recognized by the BIOS and by Grub, but immediately after Grub loads the default menu option, the USB keyboard stops being recognized. When the LightDM menu appears, I must wait about 10 or 20 seconds for the keyboard to be usable again.

• My external USB-powered drive (Western Digital) is not mountable (it's just a ext4 partition). dmesg sees the drive when I connect it, but that's all. lsusb, fdisk, GParted, SpaceFM, Thunar, Nautilus, etc. don't see it, so I can't mount it.
  
  I can use this drive with my netbook, so I don't think the problem is with the drive itself.
  
  I tested several USB ports, USB 2, USB 3, but the problem remains.

My kernel: Linux ordi 3.5.0-17-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 9 19:31:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Any idea?

Thanks a lot.

[isantop]

Hi,

On my new Ratel Performance, I have 2 USB issues:

• My USB keyboard is recognized by the BIOS and by Grub, but immediately after Grub loads the default menu option, the USB keyboard stops being recognized. When the LightDM menu appears, I must wait about 10 or 20 seconds for the keyboard to be usable again.

• My external USB-powered drive (Western Digital) is not mountable (it's just a ext4 partition). dmesg sees the drive when I connect it, but that's all. lsusb, fdisk, GParted, SpaceFM, Thunar, Nautilus, etc. don't see it, so I can't mount it.
  
  I can use this drive with my netbook, so I don't think the problem is with the drive itself.
  
  I tested several USB ports, USB 2, USB 3, but the problem remains.

My kernel: Linux ordi 3.5.0-17-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 9 19:31:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Any idea?

Thanks a lot.

Can you try with a stock Ubuntu kernel? We don't do testing with alternate kernels, and that's my guess about what's causing your issues.

[jpfle]

Can you try with a stock Ubuntu kernel? We don't do testing with alternate kernels, and that's my guess about what's causing your issues.

Indeed, I don't use a custom compiled kernel. Kernel 3.5.0-17 is the default kernel in the next version 12.10 that will be in final release in 3 days.

But I have the same problems if I choose the kernel 3.2.0-31 in the grub menu:

Linux ordi 3.2.0-31-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 7 16:16:45 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[jbelmonte]

Does the same thing happen when you boot from a live CD?

[isantop]

Does the same thing happen when you boot from a live CD?

Agreed. I'm not seeing this on our Ratel here in the shop. Are you having issue with other USB devices, or just these two?

[jpfle]

Does the same thing happen when you boot from a live CD?

• With a live Ubuntu 12.04: the external drive is not recognized at startup, but if I disconnect it and reconnect it in the USB port, it's mounted.

• With a live Ubuntu 12.10: the external drive is not recognized at startup, and if I disconnect it and reconnect it in the USB port, it's not recognized either.

[isantop]

• With a live Ubuntu 12.04: the external drive is not recognized at startup, but if I disconnect it and reconnect it in the USB port, it's mounted.

• With a live Ubuntu 12.10: the external drive is not recognized at startup, and if I disconnect it and reconnect it in the USB port, it's not recognized either.

It's normal for external drives not to be recognized at boot. Are you still seeing problems with your keyboard on the live disk?

[jpfle]

Sorry, I have perhaps not been sufficiently explicit. By "startup", I mean when the desktop environment is fully loaded.

I've done a few tests. The external drive is already connected in a USB port when I boot on the live CD:

- With a live Ubuntu 12.04: the external drive is sometimes recognized when Unity is fully loaded (I see its icon on the Unity dash), but sometimes not. However, if I disconnect it and reconnect it in the USB port, it's always recognized.

- With a live Ubuntu 12.10: the external drive is never recognized, neither when Unity is fully loaded, nor if I disconnect it and reconnect it in the USB port. Therefore, the external drive is unusable.

About the USB keyboard:

- With a live Ubuntu 12.04: the keyboard is always recognized when I see the live menu. I choose "Try Ubuntu without installing", then sometimes the keyboard is still recognized (so I can toggle with arrows between the graphical boot process or the textual boot process), sometimes it stops working for about 20 seconds, until the desktop environment begins to load.

- With a live Ubuntu 12.10: the keyboard is always recognized.