[Nut-upsuser] USB device descriptor read error with Eaton 5E UPS

[Leith Bade]

On 10 August 2014 09:05, Charles Lepple <clepple at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 7, 2014, at 7:57 AM, Leith Bade <leith at leithalweapon.geek.nz> wrote:
>
> Error -32 is EPIPE, which means that the PC didn't see a reply from the device during the descriptor read. I don't know that we have ever successfully run one of these issues to ground.
>

Considering Eaton do officially support Linux in their documentation
for this product (as well as make their own Linux UPS client) I will
see if they are able to fix it. Otherwise I will just have to return
it and get another brand.

Also do you know how I can log more detailed debug info from the
Kernel for USB? Perhaps a dump of all USB data to a file somewhere may
make it easier to see exactly what is going on.

> When you plug into the non-3.0 ports, what HCD driver is it using?
>
I generally keep it plugged into the 2.0 ports. Here is the output
from dmesg at boot (when it is working)
[    0.374422] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    0.374443] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    0.374503] usbcore: registered new device driver usb:
...
[    1.508833] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[    1.516042] ehci-pci: EHCI PCI platform driver
[    1.523181] ehci-platform: EHCI generic platform driver
[    1.530293] ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver
[    1.537416] ohci-pci: OHCI PCI platform driver
[    1.544488] ohci-platform: OHCI generic platform driver
[    1.551537] uhci_hcd: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
[    1.558906] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI Host Controller
[    1.565959] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: new USB bus registered, assigned
bus number 1
[    1.573220] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: cache line size of 64 is not supported
[    1.573270] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
[    1.573418] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[    1.580669] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2,
SerialNumber=1
[    1.587899] usb usb1: Product: xHCI Host Controller
[    1.595059] usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 3.13.0-32-generic xhci_hcd
[    1.602239] usb usb1: SerialNumber: 0000:00:14.0
[    1.609600] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    1.616605] hub 1-0:1.0: 10 ports detected
[    1.629387] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI Host Controller
[    1.636300] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: new USB bus registered, assigned
bus number 2
[    1.643425] usb usb2: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0003
[    1.650424] usb usb2: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2,
SerialNumber=1
[    1.657393] usb usb2: Product: xHCI Host Controller
[    1.664350] usb usb2: Manufacturer: Linux 3.13.0-32-generic xhci_hcd
[    1.671278] usb usb2: SerialNumber: 0000:00:14.0
[    1.678293] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    1.684992] hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
...
[    2.797764] usb 1-10: new low-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
...
[    3.423585] usb 1-10: New USB device found, idVendor=0463, idProduct=ffff
[    3.423599] usb 1-10: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2,
SerialNumber=0
[    3.423604] usb 1-10: Product: 5E
[    3.423605] usb 1-10: Manufacturer: EATON
[    3.424529] usb 1-10: ep 0x81 - rounding interval to 128
microframes, ep desc says 160 microframes
[    3.472025] hidraw: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
...

I guess that means it is using xhci_hcd. All USB ports show up as
usb1-x (on both this motherboard and the other motherboard).

Only other things of interest is that I have only ever had these
plugged into the other USB ports - mouse, keyboard, Sierra 3G modem,
Huawei 3G modem. On the current motherboard various 'virtual' devices
such as mouse, keyboard, floppy, CD drive, and HDD also appear from
the BIOS's remote control features.

However when I first got these problems was with the previous
motherboard and it would occur if nothing else was plugged in too.


> I wouldn't recommend using a hub in production, but if you have an older USB hub lying around, does that help? Shorter cables are also useful, though low-speed USB 1.1 is pretty resilient to noise.
>
> Also, if you can fix it without rebooting the PC, the issue is probably external to the PC.
>

I will try it with a USB hub. Unfortunately I don't have a shorter
cable currently. The one I am using is an aftermarket generic 1m USB
2.0 cable purchased from a local office supply store (Office Works)
since the UPS did not come with a cable :-( This cable appears to be
good quality as it is rather thick.

>
> Did you have a chance to check the NUT archives? I vaguely remember some motherboard-specific threads.
>

A bit of searching did not turn up much. Only thing I found was a
similar error with a MGE unit a few years ago. Did not say anything
about the motherboard.

Thanks,
Leith Bade
leith at leithalweapon.geek.nz