USB problems under Fedora

[John Wendel]

J.L. Coenders wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> I am having some strange problems with my USB external disks, since that I 
> have bought a new one.
> I used to have:
> - a 80 Gb drive which I usually carry around with a lot of data on it. (on 
> FAT32, because I also need it at work (Windows))
> - a 200 Gb drive which I have constantly connected as a backup drive (with 
> ext3).
> 
> Now I have a additional 300 Gb drive to replace the backup drive with ext3. I 
> would like to use the 80 and 200 Gb with FAT32 on them to carry around and 
> back them up on the 300 Gb. They all sit on the USB 2.0 controller.
> But now the trouble starts...
> 
> Several problems occur:
> a) It starts when I try to copy a large amount of data (lots of Mb's and lots 
> of files) from the 80 Gb drive to the 200 Gb drive. Somehow, rsync or 
> programs like midnight commander lock up.
> 
> b) The same thing happens when I copy a large amount of data from the 300 Gb 
> to itself (in another directory). 
> Somehow, earlier I managed to get all my data from the 200 Gb drive to the 300 
> Gb without any problem. It seems to me that the problem is not related to any 
> of the drives or the file-systems.
> 
> c) When I try to shut down, X Windows quits, but Linux wont shut down. 
> Commands like shutdown, reboot, poweroff, ctrl-alt-del and the power switch 
> anounce shut down, but do nothing. Only a blunt pulling the plug seems to 
> work. Killing processes like usb-storage do not seem to work either. Note 
> that the system keeps running.
> 
> d) A strange which seems to happen, when I for instance only connect the 300 
> Gb drive, let it lock up by transferring a lot of data, but then connect one 
> of the other drives after attempting shutdown. Output of the detection gets 
> dumped on the console with the correct information about the USB device. So, 
> it seems that Linux detects a new USB connection properly.
> 
> My conclusion so far: 
> - It is not the drives.
> - It is not the file-systems
> - It is not the usb-controller (since it seems to keep working)
> But somehow the process locks up with a large amount of data. Does anyone know 
> what could be wrong? Or how to further test this problem to find out what is 
> wrong? Or perhaps knows what I am doing wrong?
> 
> I have googled, searched the list archives and did a lot of testing, but I am 
> still in the dark. Also the logs do not show anything odd. 
> If somebody could help me out, it would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jeroen
> 
> Some info on my system:
> PIV 1.4 Ghz, 768 Mb RAM, USB2.0 controller
> 
> $ uname -r
> 2.6.10-2.3.legacy_FC2

TIME TO UPGRADE!

I wish I could help, but the only thing I can suggest is that you try 
a new kernel; you're 6 major revs back and no kernel developer is 
going to help you. The USB subsystem has had major surgery since this 
version was released.

Regards,

John