Failures when copying between two external drives on the same controller

Posted by Krzysztof Kosinski on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Krzysztof Kosinski
Published on 2011-01-18T00:02:31Z Indexed on 2011/01/18 0:55 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 424

Filed under:

linux

|

usb-storage

I'm encountering a weird problem which is present both on Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04, on two different machines.

When trying to copy between two external drives connected to the same USB controller, the transfer will randomly hang at some random time (after copying 300MB, 1GB, 10GB - it doesn't appear to depend on the dataset being copied). The hang appears to happen faster in 10.04. It appears to happen slower if both drives are connected to a hub. If the drives are connected to 2 distinct physical ports on the machine, the hang will be very fast.

Hangs cannot be reproduced if:

Data is copied from the first external drive to an internal drive, then to the second external drive
Drives are connected to different USB controllers, for example the first one is connected to the built-in controller and the second one via an external PCMCIA controller.

lspci says the first machine has an Intel ICH9 USB controller, the second an Intel ICH4.

Is this a hardware problem, a kernel problem or a software issue? I used Nautilus when copying the files.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about linux

apt-get install and update fail

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've got a problem with apt-get update and apt-get install ... commands . every time update or installing fails and errors are : Get:1 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [198B] Ign http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl… >>> More
kernel module compiling error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
sh@ubuntu:/home/ccpp/helloworld$ make gcc-4.6 -O2 -DMODULE -D_KERNEL_ -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -c -o hello-1.o hello-1.c hello-1.c:4:0: warning: "MODULE" redefined [enabled by default] <command-line>:0:0: note: this is… >>> More
Build-Essentials installation failing

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having trouble accessing the several critical header files that show to be a part of the build process. The "Ubuntu Software Center" shows "Build Essentials" as installed: Next I did the following two commands, which did not improve the problem: ~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential [sudo]… >>> More
Updating Debian kernel

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm trying to update my Debian machine to 2.6.32-46 (which is the new stable). However, after doing apt-get update my apt-cache search linux-image shows me: linux-headers-2.6.32-5-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-486 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem linux-headers-2… >>> More
Serial connection over a single USB cable (Windows to linux, or linux to linux)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm helping out with a project for an embedded device that only has USB and no serial. This device is running Linux. These days, when we need to connect to a serial port on a device we typically use a USB to serial adapter (on something like a phone system or a load balancing device, etc). I would… >>> More

Related posts about usb-storage

USB drives not recognized all of a sudden (module usb_storage not loading)

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am very close to the solution, just need to know how to get usb-storage to load I have tried most of the advice on askubuntu and other sites, usb_storage enable to fdisk -l. But I am unable to find steps to get it working again. sudo lsusb results Bus.... skipped 4 lines Bus 004 Device 002:… >>> More
USB drives not recognized all of a sudden (usb_storage not loaded lsmod does not report usb_storage)

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have tried most of the advice on askubuntu and other sites, usb_storage enable to fdisk -l. But I am unable to find steps to get it working again. sudo lsusb results Bus.... skipped 4 lines Bus 004 Device 002: ID 413c:3012 Dell Computer Corp. Optical Wheel Mouse Bus 005 Device 002: ID 413c:2105… >>> More
USB drives not recognized all of a sudden

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have tried most of the advice on askubuntu and other sites, usb_storage enable to fdisk -l. But I am unable to find steps to get it working again. lsusb results Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus… >>> More
HSDPA modem only working on certain USB ports

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Depending on which USB port I use to connect my HSDPA modem, the network manager will connect to the internet or not. I used to work (i.e. established a internet connection automatically) on all ports, but over time it simply stopped on some ports. lsusb output in all cases looks like that (Device… >>> More
Fetch videos from sony handycam to linux

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I've got a Sony Handycam DCR-DVD101. When I plug connect the USB cable to my laptop (Ubuntu 10) it doesn't mount any storage device. If I run usb-devices, I see: T: Bus=02 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#= 6 Spd=480 MxCh= 0 D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1 P: … >>> More