Unleash secret usb blue super power [solved]

while true · Last edited by while true on Sat Jun 06, 2020 7:56 am; edited 1 time in total

Yesterday i got ssd for my rpi, should be fast, was expensive.
i plugged ssd right into rpi, but i had some troubles with it
leading me to believe that my new fast ssd is somehow broken.
So I plugged ssd into pc,
and i got tears of joy when 460MB/s write speed peaked...
13GB copied in seconds, and when i issued sync command
prompt came right back on - and i was motionless...

So I plugged ssd back to rpi, but...
I open mc and i can copy one file at the time ok, (but slow)
but if I choose 8GB of data some things happen:
-speed is slow, starts with 120 MS/s but in minute drops to 4
-after 3-7 GB copied mc complains:
cannot create target file "/media/usb1/def~.mp4.480p.mp4" Read-only file system (30)
-and from glances I can see from disk i/o that /dev/sda*
are no longer listed, but still listed under file sys
-also ls /dev/sd* shows no disk
-and ssd still blinks-eses.
-and, sometimes even all usbs stop working, I can not use mouse or keyboard (led in mouse works, but not keyboard's leds)

is this me being noob and not knowing how to unleash the secret super power of blue usb?

Thank you
_________________
Kind regards, Goran Mitic

alive
while true
kick ass

dr_wulsen · Posted: Thu May 28, 2020 8:56 pm Post subject:

while true,

one could suspect that the SSD is drawing too much power from your pi.
Which one do you have, a Pi4?

If you copy files and suddenly lose your SSD, please check the output of dmesg
It will at least tell what the kernel did see happening before it got lost.

Are you within the recommended power supply rating?
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/power/README.md
If not, you can try an USB Y-cable (two type A plugs, one for data and power, the other for power only) and attach an additional power supply (phone charger) to it.

Please post the output of lsusb -tv with the SSD connected without problem;
and the output of dmesg | tail after it has crashed.

Something for later and a general hint:
For the moment you get it working stable, you will want maximum performance. You may improve it by providing the UAS driver (USB Attached SCSI).

Check your kernel config, if the option USB_UAS is enabled.
cd /usr/src/linux; grep CONFIG_USB_UAS .config
If it says "CONFIG_USB_UAS=y" or "CONFIG_USB_UAS=m" you are set and the kernel will automatically use the driver, whenever possible.
This driver can greatly improve the responsiveness and throughput of external drives connected via USB.

You can check lsusb -tv before and after {enabling the option,compiling the kernel, installing the kernel, rebooting to the new kernel}.
If it's not in use (for example: a USB2 flash drive), it will say something like:
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/16p, 480M
ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
|__ Port 3: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
ID 174c:2074 ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1074 High-Speed hub
|__ Port 1: Dev 6, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 480M
ID 0930:6545 Toshiba Corp. Kingston DataTraveler 102/2.0 / HEMA Flash Drive 2 GB / PNY Attache 4GB Stick

Note the driver in use is usb-storage, as opposed to my USB3 external drive:
/: Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 10000M
ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
|__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M
ID 152d:0567 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JMS567 SATA 6Gb/s bridge

which uses the UAS driver.
It may as well be possible that some USB3 external devices will NOT use the UAS driver due to incompatibilities. So if you have the driver enabled and it's not in use, the device may just not support it.
_________________
There's no stupid questions, only stupid answers.

while true · Posted: Fri May 29, 2020 10:32 am Post subject:

Hello dr_wulsen

I use rpi4 4GB version,
with sakaki's flavour of genpi64
(that is why i ask here, but i was in wrong place many times before),
oficial raspberry fundation power supply for rpi4,
i do have it overclocked to 2GHz/.6 arm/gpu
i have that armour cooler surrounding rpi
i use two monitors, i say that because you mentioned power and i guess it draws more power if two,
and i have two brown eyes, oh sorry...

the new ssd has just type c usb plugin, no other connections on it.
(what i am aiming at is to switch rpi from sd card to ssd disk)

dr_wulsen · Posted: Fri May 29, 2020 11:11 am Post subject:

while true,

you can be sure that a sakaki build will have all you could need, he's been digging deeper into the pi than most mortals

so you can ignore the UAS kernel stuff. since it's a readymade build and released by sakaki, there is no need to fiddle with the kernel, so there's no need to include the sources (which can be installed manually, if really required).

Back to the problem, it does look like an unstable connection.

while true · Posted: Fri May 29, 2020 11:34 am Post subject:

I use official raspberry pi fundation adapter for rpi4, white one.
15.3W Power Supply, 5.1V, 3.0A
_________________
Kind regards, Goran Mitic

alive
while true
kick ass

while true · Posted: Fri May 29, 2020 12:05 pm Post subject:

i got one powered usb hub... with mini (not micro) cabel.
it took 14 minutes for 13 giga data of files...
but it did not freeze, so it is a power issue

I guess I need blue powered hub?
_________________
Kind regards, Goran Mitic

alive
while true
kick ass

while true · Posted: Fri May 29, 2020 3:57 pm Post subject:

ok, update,

my partner has this tiny credit card size ssd 240 GB disk,
and I tested it, and it seems it works fine,
I get 75-90MB/s read/write and read on pi.
on pc starts with 400 and after a minute drops to 90
after 2min drops to 75 MB/s reading and writing.

So i guess this is not so fast ssd,
but at least it does not need additional power.

She agreed to swap ssd disks. she seems happy...

on pi I can not get faster read write speed from this ssd,
or can I?

thank you
_________________
Kind regards, Goran Mitic

alive
while true
kick ass

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri May 29, 2020 11:16 pm Post subject:

while true,

How old is your Pi and what firmware does it have?
The original firmware, when the Pi4 was released worked well with my USB3/SATA adaptor.
The next version improved the power efficiency of the USB3 and killed the performance because of errors.
I had to revert the update.

See https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/booteeprom.md

while true · Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2020 7:16 am Post subject:

Hello NeddySeagoon

late reply, sorry, you gave me link(s) to read, i had to understand them (well, partialy anyways, kheh)

I had to switch to usb-storage as well, uas just overwhelms rpi.
On average I get now 75M/s with usb-storage on my ssd on rpi4.

also, powered usb 3.0 hub (blue one) helps nothing with uas.
uas and powered usb 2.0 hub did not 'crash', but speed was 12M/s.

Thank you both for helping me getting ssd to work 'fast'.
_________________
Kind regards, Goran Mitic

alive
while true
kick ass

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2020 8:39 am Post subject:

while true,

Its worth trying a VL805 firmware update, if there is one for you.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

while true · Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:19 pm Post subject:

ah, there is hope?