Suse 9 and USB 1

[rossco6]

Am pretty much a total newbie when it comes to Linux. I bought Suse 8.2 a few years back and didn't really do much with it, although it ran fine. I recently decided to upgrade to 9.0 - FTP install.

It installed no problem but as soon as I plug in any of my USB devices (Epson scanner, HP printer, Dell Axim or un-powered hub) the thing doesn't boot. If I unplug the devices or disable USB in the BIOS it boots no problem. I have tried connecting only 1 device but it still doesn't boot. 8.2 booted fine with everything connected!

It goes as far as the activating the hotplug .... line and then just freezes - sorry for the vagueness, I'll note it down properly and add to the post!

My PC is Asrock K7S8X, Athlon 2500+, 768mb DDR (512 & 256 PC2700), 120gb & 40gb HD and Gainward 128mb NVidia fx5200 agp.

Everything else works no problem, onboard sound, the PCI NIC, graphics card etc, just the usb. I tried plugging a usb device in when it had booted up but it just froze on me and I had to power off.

Any hints, tips, clues would be greatly appreciated!

Bearing in mind, am new to Linux!

 

[stefanwagner]

Do you know how to disable hotpluggin'? (I don't)

If so, I would try booting with usb=off, disable hotplug, and then plugin the scanner.

Then try to load usb-modules. (They aren't modules?)

modprobe usbcore
modprobe usb-uhci (or: modprobe usb-ohci)

Then I would try the next device.
Perhaps you can get somewhere a Knoppix-CD, which is quiet good in autodetection.

If your USB works with that, you may perform an:
lspci
lsusb

to see, whether you have usb-uhci or usb-ohci; which modules are used for your hardware, or whether there are similar problems.

If your older suse-linux supports usb, you may of course use that - or did you already uninstall it?

I wonder why you didn't have problems during installation - didn't you plugin the devices?

And if you boot with usb-enabled but no device plugged in?
This should at least - if not hanging - show you the usb-controller (lspci, lsusb).

 

[rossco6]

During the install, I didn't have any of the usb devices connected. I tried running the Suse eval cd which hung at startup so I didn't think the install would work.

If I boot up with USB enabled but no devices, it boots up fine.

 

[stefanwagner]

So I don't have a simple solution.

You don't have a (friend with) another bootable linux?

Do you have the kernel-sources?
You could try to build a new kernel, based on the sources of your current kernel, or a really new one (2.6.1).
But this isn't an issue for an beginner, and not done in minutes.

Or do you know a friend, running linux, where you could test your hardware?

 

[rossco6]

No, don't know anyone else running Linux.

If it's not an obvious thing and quick to fix then I'll just live with it, until I'm a bit more familiar with Linux.

Thanks for the tips anyway!

 

[stefanwagner]

I read something about problems with acpi and different devices. So try to start with bootoption acpi=off.

 

[LawnBoy]

I had the same problem with the SuSE eval iso. When I bought the shrink wrapped 9.0, no problems. I've heard the ftp SuSE 9.0 doesn't have some of the goodies that the shrink wrapped version does, like YaST, but I've not personally looked over the ftp distro.

 

[SeppZutphen]

I had the same problem, also with SuSE9 and the same motherboard (ASRock K7S8X). The PC boots up normally, no problem, but immediately after inserting a usb pendrive the system freezes completely. To solve this problem you only have to disable the "USB Legacy Support" in the BIOS.
(Advanced/Chipset Configuration)
That's all!

 

[rossco6]

Thank you!!!

Disabling the legacy support worked a treat!

Thanks to all for the valuable replies.