Here's an update on my findings for this device.
First, it appears to have two names (this was confusing me a bit!). Mine ID's as EagleTec, but research shows that it is actually a Genesys Logic GL811 chip, OEM'd by EagleTec. The two are one and the same.
The only problem I get is that it locks up after a timeout message if I try to read a large quantity of data - e.g. copying a file of several hundred MB or more. It will succeed in reading maybe over 100 MB before failing, and the point of failure seems pretty random. The rest of the time it behaves perfectly well, though I'd be interested to try Brad's 1k of content-sensitive data.
The machine it's on is an old Dell PII 400, with a VIA (!) USB-2 PCI card. This card is _exactly_ the same as the one used by Claudio Mendsall (posted on 18 March, msg 10, archive 1641). It generally seems to behave OK (e.g. USB-2 flash-sticks), though I haven't used it for anything other than storage devices, and am unlikely to either.
I found a report on the usb-devel list that a patch to limit the max. block size of the usb-storage driver to 64kB fixed the problem. This was in a 2.6 kernel, but I tried the change in 2.4.20. It didn't cure the problem for me. I know the block-size change was being processed, because by setting it to a stupidly low value I could stop the thing working altogether. However, using 64k, 32k, or default (which should be 128k), I still get timeout on long reads.
I then booted up SuSe 9 (kernel 2.4.21) on another machine, 2.4G Athlon. This has an integrated VIA USB-2 controller. I was able to read the full disk, nearly 8GB, continuously without any problem from the same USB drive. Is there a significant difference in the usb-storage driver between SuSe 2.4.21 and SME 2.4.20 - or is it other factors? As timing seems to be the root problem, maybe slower processors are more susceptible. I can't easily free up the PII machine to install a different Linux just to test the theory.
Is the real problem not so much that it suffers a timeout as that it is unable to do a reset? Reset-fail is always the message that follows.
Conclusion - I still don't know the answer, or even why it works on some systems and not others.
A couple of other nuggets:
I've realised how to recover from the lockup without re-booting. Unmount the device, and unplug (do the same for any other USB drives that might be attached). Then rmmod usb-storage, which should now be free. Then re-plug, and the device gets a clean start with a freshly allocated virtual-SCSI node.
The Genesys site shows a newer version of the chip - GL811E. This will talk to the drive using ATA modes 5 & 6 (i.e. up to 66 MB/s), maximising the throughput of USB-2. The GL811 only uses ATA mode 4, so is limited to 16 MB/s). I wonder if anyone's come across a device with the faster chip?
I'm not sure where this gets us, hope it provides interesting reading anyway :)
-- Cheers Rick
--On 18 March 2004 15:30 +0000 Ged Haywood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi there,
On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Brad Campbell wrote:
>> I think the problem here is a compatibility issue with this >> particular piece of hardware. I have a couple of these, they're >> EagleTec chipsets, ID 05e3/0702, rev 2. > > It's time I bought one of these enclosures and installed Debian on a > box...
This 05e3/0702 is a GeneSys adaptor and they have a serious problem with linux at the moment. There is a long running thread on the devel list about these devices. I note later on that you have already purchased one and are awaiting it's arrival. I'd be interested in any results you may have on this device as I can now lock it up nicely by sending it 1k of data.
I'll certainly let the list know what I find, but as I think I said it will be a while before I can do any serious investigation. However in
http://www.maplin.co.uk/faq/viewfaq.asp?ModuleNo=35057
although there are a couple of notes which say outright that "Linux is not supported", a note from one Richard Boyce near the very bottom of the page says that he has it working well with SuSe 8.1 (2.4.19).
Sorry theres no useful info in this post, but it is being chased.
Not at all, that's very useful info. And I didn't blow my life savings on the purchase, so don't worry about that. :)
73, Ged.
------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials Free Linux tutorial presented by Daniel Robbins, President and CEO of GenToo technologies. Learn everything from fundamentals to system administration.http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1470&alloc_id=3638&op=click _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, use the last form field at: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-usb-users
