Linux – What’s changed with USB drivers in 4.0 and later Linux kernels

With kernels up to 3.19, all of my USB devices work perfectly.

On upgrading to 4.0 or later, some of my USB devices stop working and the kernel produces errors like this:

[    3.369436] usb 9-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[    3.593543] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 4 using ohci-pci
[    3.997572] usb 9-1: device not accepting address 4, error -62
[    4.120602] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 5 using ohci-pci
[    4.524792] usb 9-1: device not accepting address 5, error -62
[    4.524911] usb usb9-port1: unable to enumerate USB device
[   15.402105] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 6 using ohci-pci
[   15.530135] usb 9-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[   15.759224] usb 9-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[   15.983312] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 7 using ohci-pci
[   16.111309] usb 9-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[   16.340398] usb 9-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[   16.564378] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 8 using ohci-pci
[   16.968454] usb 9-1: device not accepting address 8, error -62
[   17.091555] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 9 using ohci-pci
[   17.495570] usb 9-1: device not accepting address 9, error -62
[   17.495603] usb usb9-port1: unable to enumerate USB device
[   17.673702] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 10 using ohci-pci
[   17.801758] usb 9-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[   18.030814] usb 9-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[   18.254834] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 11 using ohci-pci
[   18.382858] usb 9-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[   18.611902] usb 9-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[   18.835977] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 12 using ohci-pci
[   19.240034] usb 9-1: device not accepting address 12, error -62
[   19.363101] usb 9-1: new full-speed USB device number 13 using ohci-pci
[   19.767182] usb 9-1: device not accepting address 13, error -62
[   19.767226] usb usb9-port1: unable to enumerate USB device

That particular example was just a cheap USB memory card-reader….I don't really care about it.

The more important issue to me is that the Quad DVB-T receiver on my mythtv backend box is also subject to the same problem, so I'm unable to upgrade that machine past 3.19 at the moment. This is a PCI-e card, that looks like it's some kind of pci-e to usb bridge, and the DVB tuners attached via usb. I'm not entirely sure but I think it might actually be a PCIe -> PCI -> USB card.

Here are the card's details on a working 3.19 kernel:

# lsusb | grep Leadtek
Bus 010 Device 005: ID 0413:6680 Leadtek Research, Inc. 
Bus 010 Device 004: ID 0413:6680 Leadtek Research, Inc. 
Bus 010 Device 003: ID 0413:6680 Leadtek Research, Inc. 
Bus 010 Device 002: ID 0413:6680 Leadtek Research, Inc. 

# dmesg | grep -i DigitalNow| grep pci
[    9.405568] input: DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:00.2/usb10/10-1/rc/rc1/input17
[    9.405687] rc1: DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:00.2/usb10/10-1/rc/rc1
[    9.475939] input: DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:00.2/usb10/10-2/rc/rc2/input22
[    9.476049] rc2: DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:00.2/usb10/10-2/rc/rc2
[    9.542441] input: DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:00.2/usb10/10-3/rc/rc3/input24
[    9.542617] rc3: DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:00.2/usb10/10-3/rc/rc3
[    9.609134] input: DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:00.2/usb10/10-4/rc/rc4/input26
[    9.609289] rc4: DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:00.2/usb10/10-4/rc/rc4

# lspci | grep '^0[45]:'
04:00.0 PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. PEX8112 x1 Lane PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge (rev aa)
05:00.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 62)
05:00.1 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 62)
05:00.2 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 65)

# lspci -vv -s 05:00
05:00.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 62) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
    Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
    Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
    Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
    Latency: 32, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
    Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 26
    Region 4: I/O ports at d020 [size=32]
    Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
        Flags: PMEClk+ DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold-)
        Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
    Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

    05:00.1 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 62) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 32, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 41
        Region 4: I/O ports at d000 [size=32]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
            Flags: PMEClk+ DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold-)
            Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

    05:00.2 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 65) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 Controller
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 32, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 50
        Region 0: Memory at fe500000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
            Flags: PMEClk+ DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold-)
            Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci

So, what's changed in the kernel USB drivers recently? Is this a bug, or is it a configuration issue?

Several kernel versions ago (3.8), USB stuff changed so that ehci-hcd had to be loaded before ehci-pci. initramfs-tools has since been upgraded to handle that automatically, but i still have the commented out remnants of the workaround in my /etc/modules file:

# make sure ehci-pci loads immediately after ehci-hcd for kernel 3.8
# (should be handled automagically by initramfs-tools 0.110 now)
#ehci-hcd
#ehci-pci

Is this a similar situation, that can be handled by loading drivers in a particular order or by blacklisting certain obsolete drivers?

Some more hardware and software details:

This has occurred on several machines including:

• Asus M4A89TD PRO USB3 motherboard with AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor (workstation)
• Asus M5A97 with AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor (myth frontend)
• Asus Sabertooth 990FX with AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor (workstation and server)
• Asus Sabertooth 990FX with AMD FX(tm)-8150 Eight-Core Processor (myth backend)

The last one, with the FX-8150 (which is what i had lying around when the previous motherboard died and i had to rebuild it), is the myth box with the DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver. The first one, the M4A89TD Pro, is the machine with the cheap USB memory card-reader.

All have at least 8GB RAM, and all have either nvidia GTX-750 (myth boxes) or GTX-560 or GTX-560Ti GPUs, using the proprietary nvidia driver. All are running Debian sid, with recent kernels (4.2.x on everything but the myth backend as that's the only one where USB is important for anything but HID – USB kbd and mouse and even a wacom tablet work fine, BTW, on 4.0+ kernels).

All machines boot off 128-256GB SSDs in RAID-1 using XFS for / and ext4 for /boot. The mythtv backend is also running zfsonlinux for bulk storage. As is the combined workstation/server.

I have tried debian stock kernels, liquorix kernels, and custom-compiled kernels. All with the same result: up to 3.19 is fine. 4.0 and later breaks my DVB-T receiver and my memory-card reader.

Please note: I am not after general knowledge, or information that can be found in five minutes with google. I am after specific information about any known USB (or other possibly related) regressions in 4.0+ kernels and, with luck, a patch or workaround.