ROC-RK3328-CC USB 3.0 Woes
So I've got an issue with the USB 3.0 port on my Renegade board, namely that it only works when it wants to. I got my board from the original Indiegogo campaign but due to the software support still being immature at the time, I haven't had a chance to do much with the board until recently. It took over a month just to get the first software images and let's face it, those were barely functional.
My original goal when I got the board was to build an OMV NAS box or NextCloud box using a spare HDD I had on hand. In testing this solution, I continually had issues with the USB 3.0 that I first believed to be power related due to the drive being bus powered. I've since replaced the power supply with a 2.5 amp RPi compatible supply and then replaced the drive with a external powered 3.5" drive and still I see the issue so I am relatively confident it's not power related.
In a test, I hooked up a USB 3.0 gigabit ethernet adapter I had on hand and can confirm it also drops it's connection to the PC. When checking dmesg, you can see where it registered the USB ethernet adapter on usb5-port1 followed by numerous error lines from the usb subsystem stating:
[ 6980.141634] usb usb5-port1: cannot disable (err = -32)
[ 7021.138690] xhci-hcd xhci-hcd.9.auto: Cannot set link state.
I left a continual ping running on another PC at the USB ethernet port IP and can confirm that the dmesg message coincides with the USB ethernet powering off and back on.
Currently running Armbian Debian 9 but noticed this issue using the OMV release and the official Ubuntu 16.04 images as well. No other USB devices hooked up, running headless.
Anybody else experience this issue?
Do you think my board is damaged?
Comments
So I take it nobody has see this issue before?
How often does it drop the port and get it back? Do the other USB ports behave anywhere similar?
And fwiw the USB3+gigabit isnt really a slam dunk for a micro NAS...
In my testing of latest software with a very simple Samba setup on each platform I came away with the following NAS stats (using a very fast usb3 hdd and a sustained single transfer to establish speed)
Raspberry Pi 3b+: 19 MB/sec write
Asus Tinkerboard: 27 MB/sec write
Renegade: 28MB/sec write
After playing with the Renegade a bit I did actually run into your error. The USB3 hub seems to disable itself completely (further connections in that port land on the USB2 hub). This is why at first things seemed stable, the disk would just end up as a USB2 device which also explains the lower speed. After switching from a USB3 sata adapter to a USB3 flash drive the error went away, so it's at least partly related to that kind of hardware (signal issues with the cable perhaps).
The drops seem random but usually start shortly after boot within about 5-10 minutes. Other ports do not seem affected but the only things I've tried on them were keyboards and mice.
The idea behind using it as a NAS wasn't so much to get omfg amazing speed but rather better speed than using a USB 2.0 device would and just because I could.
Libre Computer and Firefly folks are meeting with Rockchip next week and will discuss this issue to seek a resolution.
This is exceptional news, thank you for the update!
In testing some other devices it definitely appears that the USB3 port on the Renegade is shaky compared to others. I have no issues using these USB3 drives on laptop, desktop, but the Renegade board generates dropouts with anything except a USB3 thumb-drive. Maybe shielding/grounding in the connector is an issue?
@JeffMeden It's a software issue with Rockchip's SDK.
@JeffMeden It's not sure if I'm just lucky, but I've using using this as a NAS server for several months without issue. I'm running "Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS". If you are using an NTFS drive, you should enable big_writes. I get 70-90MB/s over SAMBA.
I purchased 2 new low-cost USB3/sata adapters, the Sabrent and the Startech versions (from amazon). The Startech version works great (until the whole thing overheated trying to copy 100GB at 85MB/s) but the Sabrent version does the same thing that the Anker version does which is report "xhci-hcd xhci-hcd.9.auto: Cannot set link state." "usb usb5-port1: cannot disable (err = -32)"
There will be updated images coming this week to resolve some USB 3.0 woes.
Awesome news!
I'm having issues as well.
There's a new image up on the server. Ubuntu 18.04 with LXDE.
I've been having the same problem. Pulls just fine, but writing to the disk is just a no go. I'll try this new image and report back.
Has a patch for this fix been released back into the community? I'd much prefer using this in a user-built Armbian image. Just using this as a NAS after all and don't need a DE or GUI of any sort.
Thanks!
Follow up: It does appear to be working now.
I transferred a little less than 10Gigs from one drive to the other using MC, whilst SSH'd in from my computer and nothing locked up. I did experience a little lag here and there, but nothing over-the-top.
NOTE: The new image isn't under the Official Download Link, but is available under Google Drive. Which is really pointed @ MediaFire: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/gamc1a392s3mb/Ubuntu
Cheers!
Wrong link.
This should be the correct link.
http://share.loverpi.com/board/libre-computer-project/libre-computer-board-roc-rk3328-cc/image/ubuntu/
Both Images are the same. The one I posted is just hosted by Firefly on MediaFire.
If I'm wrong please feel free to let me know.
Anyway, I've done some more testing and I'm right back to where I was. The USB 3.0 port just can't seem to handle the transfers and craps out. I moved my Raspberry Pi 3B back into place and WHAM OH! works just fine. It has ZERO problems moving files from A to B. I recently acquired a NanoPC T4 and tested that out as well, which also has a USB 3.0 port and that also works flawlessly.
So I'm back to thinking this is hardware related. I've used Firefly and Armbian images and experience the exact problem on all. MAINLINE and DESKTOP variants.
If anyone has any ideas I'd love to read them. I'll keep trying new things and report back.
Thanks!
dmesg? What are you using it with?
I recently read in the Armbian forum:
With this in mind, I've decided to order a eMMC from you guys and go from there. If I still run into trouble after I receive and setup the eMMC, I'll post my setup and dmesg.
Thanks!
We made that post. USB 3.0 issues are unrelated to the MicroSD card UHS. For both SoCs, the software is pre-set for 100MHz for MicroSD cards which means a maximum of 50MB/s. dmesg output will be helpful to determine if it is a USB 3.0 issue. There are some crappy MicroSD cards out there that advertise UHS but can't operate reliably. Namely these are cheapo and fake MicroSD cards often found on Aliexpress, eBay, and other sources. If you purchase from BestBuy or MicroCenter name brands like Samsung and SanDisk, there shouldn't be any problems.
Armbian - https://pastebin.com/KqVw502B
Firefly - https://pastebin.com/dikLZJND
The Firefly dmesg doesn't have the drives hooked up, but that doesn't appear to be what the problem is. I could be wrong of course, but they seem to be functioning everywhere else.
The SD Cards I'm using are SanDisk and Samsung, all of which were purchased off Amazon. I have noticed some flaky business whilst using the Samsung cards with this board.
Anyway, hope that helps.
Thanks!
So it works on Armbian and doesn't work on the Firefly? What is the image file name?
Still having errors with USB 3.0 using latest Armbian release.
Note, this is after a fresh install with a USB 3.0 HDD hooked up and nothing else. I first did an apt-get update, rebooted, then deleted the existing filesystem and formatted it.
See the following paste - https://pastebin.com/yfhBXD5A
Please report on the Firefly images. See Armbian forum for Armbian images. If you refer to Armbian, it should only be in reference to a comparison between Firefly's image and Armbians image if one thing works on one and not the other. If it is purely about Armbian, go to Armbian's forums.
Are the firefly images using mainline kernel or custom? The reason I ask is that I don't want to have to rebuild this box once it goes into production just because it needs a new kernel image or the like. . .
I'm booting Armbian from a USB 3.0 SATA drive dock/hub. I have not noticed any Issues other than USB memory stick. Stick gets too hot and writes really slows after about 2 gigs. I'll test HD to HD transfer and post back.
Moved 13.2 gigs from drive to drive in under 5 min. Speed was from 36 MB/s to 43 MB/s. This was through a powered USB 3.0 dock/hub.If your having issues it could be a voltage problem. I learned with a pi, plugging in a powered external HD solved a lot of problems. I don't use them headless so, a wireless keyboard was enough to cause voltage warnings. A powered HD solved it. On the Renegade board the cooling fan runs until I shut off the HD dock. I also power a USB 2.0 hub with charging port on USB 3.0 dock, for my wireless keyboard/mouse (the only un-powered accessory I use).
On pi the powered HD solved my problems without the hub. I switch the keyboard/mouse for 1 other pi so it's just easier to switch the hub to the one I'm using. A quality powered hub would also work. My fist powered hub was cheap, under $20 and, was no help at all.
Almost forgot, I'm using Armbian_5.59_Renegade_Ubuntu_bionic_default_4.4.152_desktop.img
What does lsusb -t say about the speed of each device on the hub?
After much testing, it may have been an issue with the chipset in my USB 3.0 HDD sled. When using the same drive in a different sled, things work as expected.
I'm still not 100% trusting that the issues are completely resolved so for now, I've gone with a different solution for my NAS box and will wait awhile before rebuilding it with the Renegade.
I wanted to post back that the latest ubuntu image ROC-RK3328-CC-ubuntu18.04-LXDE_20180920 does appear to have much more stable USB3 performance. The same devices that i previously had stability issues with appear to still have speed issues with this version (only moving data at ~usb2 speeds) but overall the port is much more stable which is good and some of the devices do work very fast (70-90MB/s transfers from network to disk and back)