USB 3 Support

Submitted by stephencweston on #1

Hi,

My ReadyNAS102 has two USB3 ports on the back. I have a USB3 harddrive which I would like to have plugged in permanently into one of these ports.

I have noticed that any USB2 devices plugged into either the USB2 or USB3 ports work fine. Also, the USB3 harddrive plugged into a USB2 port works fine. However, when I try to plug in the USB3 hardrive into a USB3 port, although it shows up in the list of devices in the client software, it doesn't seem to get recognised by the client computer (a desktop running Ubuntu 14.04).

I'm guessing that VirtualHere doesn't support devices connected using USB3. Whilst I understand that USB3 connection speeds are probably pointless over a LAN (the LAN being the likely speed bottleneck, not the USB connection), it does mean that I can't use the USB3 harddrive in the ReadyNAS102's two USB3 ports.

Is there anyway I can get my USB3 harddrive, connected to a USB3 port to work? As I say I just want it to work, I don't care about the USB3 speeds etc, so even if the connection to the VirtualHere Client was USB2, as long as I could access it, it is good for me.

Thanks again, for your help.
Stephen

Submitted by stephencweston on Tue, 2014/06/17 - 08:43

#2

I had a momentary brain wave and thought I'd try connecting the USB3 harddrive to the USB3 port using a USB2 cable to see if that would make it work as if it was recognised as a USB2 device. Unfortunately, again this doesn't then get recognised by the client computer and seems to show up errors in a 'System Messages' window when I try to disconnect the harddrive as below:

23:32:16 INFO :VirtualHere 2.3.5 starting (Compiled: Jun 10 2014 13:26:08)
23:32:16 INFO :Using config at /root/.vhui
23:32:16 INFO :Administrator mode
23:32:16 INFO :IPC available at /tmp/vhclient
23:33:46 ERROR :Error opening usbip vhci_driver, make sure you have sudo
23:33:46 ERROR :Unable to find bound port for device at address 31
23:34:05 ERROR :Unable to connect to the usbip vhci_hcd driver

Regards,
Stephen

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 2014/06/17 - 12:00

#3

Does it work ok under windows when you try to use the USB3 driver in a USB3 port ? Im trying to determine if its a just a linux issue...

Michael,

I've checked this with my USB3 harddrive connected to a USB3 port using a USB3 cable and can confirm that everything is working correctly in the windows version of the client. It appears to only be the linux version that is a problem.

Regards

Submitted by Michael on Fri, 2014/06/20 - 22:02

#6

I took a look at this in detail and actually USB 3.0 is not compatible with usbip at the moment.

I wrote the virtualhere client to interface with the linux usbip driver in the linux kernel. The source code for the usbip linux kernel driver is here http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/drivers/staging/usbip/ . I pass in the speed of the device (LOW/FULL and HIGH) but it does not have an option for SUPER SPEED therefore the device fails to enumerate in the linux kernel. I think it would actually not that big a change to make usbip usb 3.0 compatible, i think its just adding that speed to the enum. I will add this on my todo list. For the time being you will have to plug your USB 3.0 devices into a USB 2.0 hub and then plug that into your NAS. If you are handy with C you could just fix it and then email the change to the linux kernel developers for incorporation into a later linux build.

Michael,

I think I understand what you are saying, and certainly thanks for looking into this! Unfortunately I'm not a coder and wouldn't even know where to start with fixing the problem myself, but I'll get a cheap USB2 hub if that solves the problem.

Again, I appreciate your help. Regards,
Stephen