I have experienced similar issues with "no name" hardware, that permits
an attempt at what constitutes "real".
1. If there are standards (e.g., https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.usb.org_documents&d=DwIDaQ&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A&m=eylOrvOYEMhiZxOxhJmc1NcAroPTDWoxQdA11kbbvYw&s=on9gdTT0d7Z27yz8BqYvlKhnVm_W0JGVeS7d8KUoa48&e= for
specifications documents), then a statement from the vendor that the
item meets particular standards. Some vendors are less than candid
about this fact -- I can provide examples from my own experience.
2. An inspection of the mechanical components (including cable outer
jacket, cable "flexibility", lack of flexibility in the hardware case --
I have seen some that compress when one simple "finger pinches" an item).
3. Mechanical fit and retention -- for a jack, does a plug fit well with
little "wiggle slop", and for a plug, the same when pushed into a proper
jack (e.g., a USB port on a vendor laptop from say HP, Dell, Lenovo,
Apple, etc.).
4. Is the hardware recognized by a production Linux? By MS Win 10? If
the hardware requires a specific software driver, typically from the
vendor, will it work with later/other operating system releases? If the
driver is MS Win or Mac OS X proprietary, has it been reverse engineered
for Linux?
On 2/12/21 11:45 AM, Stephen L. Talbott wrote:
On Fri, Feb 12, 2021 at 10:37:11AM -0800, Konstantin Olchanski wrote:
On Thu, Feb 11, 2021 at 04:17:46PM -0500, Stephen L. Talbott wrote:
Is there an reason why a rather vanilla SL-7.9 system might report “4
ports detected” on a new, Sabrent 7-port, powered USB 3.0 hub (HB-BUP7)?
Some of these usb switches have interesting internal structure (separate usb2
and usb3 hubs, two 4-port hubs cascaded from each other, etc) and the linux
usb hub driver may be confused and fail to enable all the ports.
You can see the bus structure that linux can see in the output
of "lsusb" and in /sys/bus/usb/devices/. There may be some error
messages in "dmesg" ("cannot enable port", etc).
And possibility of defective device cannot be ruled out,
these $1 products do not go through any QA.
Also if you have reports of device "HB-BUP7" working for somebody,
it means nothing. Makers of $1 USB devices are notorious
for shipping completeley different devices (different chips,
different linux drivers) under the same part number. Bait-and-switch
in action.
--
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada
Thanks for the comments, which are helpful background. I am appending
below the dmesg content that immediately follows my connecting the hub. I
am not qualified to read much into the messages, but there seem to be no
errors reported. However, there ARE a good number of lines like these
two:
systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read /run/udev/data/c189:535: No
such file or directory
systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/+usb:5-1.3.4:1.0: No such file or directory
As for “$1 devices”, my Sabrent hub cost $36.99 before tax. I am curious
where one goes for a “real” hub (at least 7 ports) — although somehow I
have a hunch that there are many different definitions of “real” out
there. My machine is an HP desktop for personal work, not a server for
critical services.
################# dmesg output #################
[27424.944664] usb 5-1.3: new high-speed USB device number 24 using xhci_hcd
[27425.035451] usb 5-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=5411,
bcdDevice= 1.36
[27425.035460] usb 5-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2,
SerialNumber=0
[27425.035465] usb 5-1.3: Product: 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub
[27425.035470] usb 5-1.3: Manufacturer: Generic
[27425.035860] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/c189:535: No such file or directory
[27425.036081] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/c189:535: No such file or directory
[27425.036253] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/c189:535: No such file or directory
[27425.036408] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/c189:535: No such file or directory
[27425.037951] hub 5-1.3:1.0: USB hub found
[27425.038991] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/+usb:5-1.3:1.0: No such file or directory
[27425.039281] hub 5-1.3:1.0: 4 ports detected
[27425.039922] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/+usb:5-1.3:1.0: No such file or directory
[27425.315678] usb 5-1.3.4: new high-speed USB device number 25 using xhci_hcd
[27425.416560] usb 5-1.3.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda,
idProduct=5411, bcdDevice= 1.36
[27425.416569] usb 5-1.3.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2,
SerialNumber=0
[27425.416574] usb 5-1.3.4: Product: 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub
[27425.416578] usb 5-1.3.4: Manufacturer: Generic
[27425.417474] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/c189:536: No such file or directory
[27425.417783] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/c189:536: No such file or directory
[27425.418566] hub 5-1.3.4:1.0: USB hub found
[27425.419153] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/+usb:5-1.3.4:1.0: No such file or directory
[27425.419901] hub 5-1.3.4:1.0: 4 ports detected
[27425.420967] systemd-journald[506]: no db file to read
/run/udev/data/+usb:5-1.3.4:1.0: No such file or directory
[27484.039490] systemd-journald[506]: Sent WATCHDOG=1 notification.
Steve
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen L. Talbott
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__bwo.life_&d=DwIDaQ&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A&m=IPOXzXBtrCO_fXWWHvEYDEXPD_kUR28KBKMZtr2PiqA&s=61kPrfSHULQyKHHfU12Y5DQSyzmIyqTT-FIAul8FuJY&e=
“Evolution As It Was Meant To Be”
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__bwo.life_bk&d=DwIDaQ&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A&m=IPOXzXBtrCO_fXWWHvEYDEXPD_kUR28KBKMZtr2PiqA&s=vsQXR6TQuNiSz_9hUlzgtGL_Sr5OR4RW5bFAzAg-tPY&e=
Senior Researcher, The Nature Institute: natureinstitute.org
Mailing address: 20 May Hill Road, Ghent NY 12075 Tel: 518-672-5049
