[plug] USB questions further info needed

[Craig Ringer]

laurie anderson wrote:
>   Morning,
>   Craig here is the info you requested & I hope I have set it out clearly.

You have indeed; thanks very much. It's not conventional to put the '$' 
in front of command output though (that makes it look like those are 
commands you've run, and is confusing) but otherwise very readable.

$ ls /proc/bus/usb
$ ls: /proc/bus/usb: No such file or directory

becomes

$ ls /proc/bus/usb
ls: /proc/bus/usb: No such file or directory

Also, normally if a command has been run as root you use '#' instead of 
'$'. This is because the prompt on a UNIX system (with a 
bourne-compatable shell) is '$' for a normal user, and '#' for root. 
It's an easy way of telling the person viewing the message 'I ran this 
as root..." and "I ran this as a normal user...". So if you see someone 
write something like:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ su
# make install

(the "$ su" is often assumed and left out)

you'll know what it means.

>   $ modprobe usb-uhci
>   $ /lib/modules/2.4.22-1-k7/kernel/drivers/usb/host/usb-uhci.o:
>     init_module: No such device
>   $ hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
>           You may find more unformation in syslog or the output from dmesg
>   $ /lib/modules/2.4.22-1-k7/kernel/drivers/usb/host/usb-uhci.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.22-1-k7/kernel/drivers/usb/host/usb-uhci.o failed
>   $ /lib/modules/2.4.22-1-k7/kernel/drivers/usb/host/usb-uhci.o: insmod usb-uhci failed

>   $ 00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce USB Controller (rec c3)
>   $ 00:03.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce USB Controller (rec c3)

That's the key. As Bernard just said, you have an OHCI controller that 
needs a different driver. OHCI controllers aren't normally found on PC 
motherboards - only the nForce AFAIK - so it's unusual.

If using `modprobe usb-ohci` as Bernard suggested gets you basic usb 
support (ie mounting usbdevfs works, usb messages turn up in dmesg, and 
you can see the usb root hubs in /proc/bus/usb/devices), you'll need to 
make sure usb-ohci gets loaded at boot.

If this is a debian box, the easy way is to just add 'usb-ohci' (sans 
quotes) on a line by it's self to the /etc/modules file. For most other 
distros, add a 'modprobe usb-ohci' command to the end of 
/etc/rc.d/rc.local .

Then you're back on track.

Craig Ringer