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ssl6

Member

From: Ottawa, ON, CA

Registered: 2007-08-30

Posts: 594

brutal slow usb transfer rate

i was trying to search through my old posts, im sure i asked this before and got a solution, something about configuring hal or something. can't find what im looking for in the wiki though. but im on a clean install now, so i need to fix this problem again

basically, im trying to transfer 7.2 gb of stuff to a flash drive, and its transferring at a whopping 400kbps or so on average, i should be able to see 10mbps

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chochem

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2008-03-02

Posts: 176

Website

Re: brutal slow usb transfer rate

Uhm, though none of these are HAL-related, I'd check these:
a) run 'dmesg' in a terminal after you insert the drive. What modules are used? Post the output.
b) run 'lsmod | grep -i usb' in a terminal. Is the ehci_hcd module present?
c) what are your kernel boot params? If you've got stuff like noapic, irqpoll, etc. this could be a possible cause.

And AFAIK, possibly unless you've done some special configuration for this particular drive, HAL cannot be responsible for slow transfer speeds - other may correct me if I'm wrong?

Last edited by chochem (2008-09-24 23:55:01)

ssl6

Member

From: Ottawa, ON, CA

Registered: 2007-08-30

Posts: 594

Re: brutal slow usb transfer rate

heres the dmesg output

usb 2-5: USB disconnect, address 8                                              
ata4: EH complete                                                               
ata4: EH complete                                                               
usb 2-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 9                 
usb 2-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                  
scsi12 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices                            
usb-storage: device found at 9                                                  
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning                       
ata4: EH complete                                                               
ata4: EH complete                                                               
ata4: EH complete                                                               
scsi 12:0:0:0: Direct-Access     OCZ      RALLY2           1100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS                                                                               
sd 12:0:0:0: [sdh] 31326208 512-byte hardware sectors (16039 MB)                
sd 12:0:0:0: [sdh] Write Protect is off                                         
sd 12:0:0:0: [sdh] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00                                      
sd 12:0:0:0: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through                          
sd 12:0:0:0: [sdh] 31326208 512-byte hardware sectors (16039 MB)                
sd 12:0:0:0: [sdh] Write Protect is off                                         
sd 12:0:0:0: [sdh] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00                                      
sd 12:0:0:0: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sdh: sdh1
sd 12:0:0:0: [sdh] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 12:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg9 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete

heres teh output for the other command

[urmom@urmom-pc ~]$ lsmod | grep -i usb
usbhid                 51680  0
hid                    49088  2 hidp,usbhid
ff_memless              7816  1 usbhid
hci_usb                17820  3
bluetooth              56868  9 bnep,rfcomm,hidp,l2cap,hci_usb
usb_storage           103872  0
usbcore               154520  6 usbhid,hci_usb,usb_storage,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd
scsi_mod              112504  5 usb_storage,sg,sd_mod,sr_mod,libata

how do i check kernel boot paramaters?

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freakcode

Member

From: São Paulo - Brazil

Registered: 2007-11-03

Posts: 410

Website

Re: brutal slow usb transfer rate

basically, im trying to transfer 7.2 gb of stuff to a flash drive, and its transferring at a whopping 400kbps or so on average, i should be able to see 10mbps

USB transfer rates are from 1.5 MBit/s (187Kb/s) up to 12 Mbit/s (1.5 Mb/s). But your mileage may vary a lot, because if the flash drive is slow on write, USB controller will await the device be ready to receive more data, and then the average transfer rate drops.

E.g., I have a Sony-Ericsson cellphone that can be mounted as a generic volume via USB. It connects as USB 2.0, as I'm able to use in modem mode with high speeds. For writing, thought, it uses a slow MicroSD flash, so when I copy files the transfer rate is about 150Kb/s.

So, I wouldn't bet forehand it is a configuration issue with your kernel. Also, HAL doesn't come into play - it plays no role on the way device is acessed, it only detects devices and notifies the kernel and the DBus system bus.