Author Topic: ArcaOS Hardware Support Discussion  (Read 19293 times)

Doug Bissett

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Re: ArcaOS Hardware Support Discussion
« Reply #30 on: August 04, 2019, 10:49:53 pm »
2 Ivan:

I have been looking into what your machine has, and what the USB 3 drivers will support.

Your motherboard has TWO, XHCI (USB3) adapters. The only USB 1.x, and 2.0 adapters are on the VIA plug in card. So, even if it does have USB 2 physical ports, they are operated by a USB 3 adapter, meaning they won't work until the USB 3 driver is available (not counting that they may continue to work, with BIOS support, after booting).

Your USB 3 adapters are: PCI ID 1022:15E0 devices, which is AMD USB 3.1. My main machine has PCI ID 1022:7814  devices, which is the AMD USB 3.0 equivalent. From what I have been able to find out, they use the same driver, in windows. The only difference is in the maximum transfer speed to the device (which should be a hardware function). My machine also has USB 2, and USB 1.1 adapters, built in, so I don't have your problem.

FWIW, I can load the USB 3 driver, and I can read from a USB 3 stick. It has trouble writing to it, which is one of the reasons why the USB 3 driver has not, yet, been released. So, at the moment, AMD adapters work better than Intel adapters (the driver loads, but I get no response to inserting a USB stick, of any kind, on my Intel based Lenovo ThinkPad L530). It is acknowledged, that Intel USB 3 is being a problem, and that is another reason why the USB 3 drivers are not, yet, ready.

I will also note, that Arca Noae USB 12.1 is included in ArcaOS 5.0.4. This is the 32 bit version of the Arca Noae USB drivers, without the USB 3 support. Be aware, that switching versions may require that you change the order of lines in CONFIG.SYS (as documented earlier in this thread). Or, you can use my Logical Config.Sys Sort (LCSS) from HOBBES (be sure to READ the instructions). It automatically checks the version, and adjusts CONFIG.SYS as required. I don't know if other drivers will work with the 32 bit driver, but I do know that the USBECD (Extended Control) driver does work, so I wouldn't expect problems with other drivers, unless they do version checking.

ivan

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Re: ArcaOS Hardware Support Discussion
« Reply #31 on: August 04, 2019, 11:14:02 pm »
Thanks Doug,

You have confirmed my assumptions regarding the USB 2 ports being on a pass-through from USB 3.

Maybe the USB 3  XHCI driver should be released in two versions - one for AMD and the other for Intel.  At least that would get the AMD version out into the wild and exposed to more testing on other AMD based motherboards.

Doug Bissett

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Re: ArcaOS Hardware Support Discussion
« Reply #32 on: August 05, 2019, 03:22:15 am »
Quote
Maybe the USB 3  XHCI driver should be released in two versions - one for AMD and the other for Intel.  At least that would get the AMD version out into the wild and exposed to more testing on other AMD based motherboards.

It is one driver, and according to the USB 3.x specs, the one driver should work on all USB 3.x adapters. Unfortunately, it seems that manufacturers skipped that part of the specification (and, probably other parts too, as they always did in the past).

AMD is not one of the main suppliers of USB 3.x hardware (from what I have seen). In fact I am pretty sure that AMD simply re-brands some other manufacturers hardware. Whatever that hardware is, it is probably used on many system boards, so saying that the driver is for AMD, would be misleading, at best.