Arch Linux

julesm

Member

Registered: 2014-07-29

Posts: 70

[Solved] USB Hub - Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

I've got a USB hub which in the past worked fine on Arch - a few weeks ago in fact. But today when I plugged it in, I get an error message in the journal: "Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?" And the hub doesn't work properly.  It's a 4 port USB 3.0 hub made by Ugreen.

I've tried it on 3 different machines running Arch/xfce and I get the same error.  But on a Windows 7 machine, there are no errors and it works absolutely fine.

Any ideas?

Here's what I get from the journal:

sudo journalctl -rb -l:

Jun 07 13:40:30 julesdesk kernel: usb 2-1.6-port4: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
Jun 07 13:40:29 julesdesk kernel: hub 2-1.6:1.0: 4 ports detected
Jun 07 13:40:29 julesdesk kernel: hub 2-1.6:1.0: USB hub found
Jun 07 13:40:29 julesdesk kernel: usb 2-1.6: Manufacturer: GenesysLogic
Jun 07 13:40:29 julesdesk kernel: usb 2-1.6: Product: USB2.0 Hub
Jun 07 13:40:29 julesdesk kernel: usb 2-1.6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Jun 07 13:40:29 julesdesk kernel: usb 2-1.6: New USB device found, idVendor=05e3, idProduct=0610
Jun 07 13:40:29 julesdesk kernel: usb 2-1.6: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci

Cheers,
Jules

Last edited by julesm (2018-06-08 12:02:28)

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,284

Re: [Solved] USB Hub - Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

Please elaborate on "the hub doesn't work properly".

julesm

Member

Registered: 2014-07-29

Posts: 70

Re: [Solved] USB Hub - Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

@Awebb - Drives that are connected to the hub make constant "clicking" noises like they are mounting and unmounting and copying files is really slow.  But those same drives plugged into the pc directly or into a Windows pc work fine - no clicking and fast as normal.

Cheers,
Jules

teckk

Member

Registered: 2013-02-21

Posts: 519

Re: [Solved] USB Hub - Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

you can try

dmesg -w

Then plug it in and watch an see if there is switching on and off, that could be due to a bad cable or a dirty/bad usb socket/cable end.
I've had usb cables/devices act weird and flaky like that. Also could it be that those drives aren't getting enough power through that hub? I saw what you wrote about windows, but usb devices are weird that way.

If you plug those drives in the machines usb port and all is well, but problematic with the hub, then duh, it's the hub. Check for adequate power and clean connectors.

Issue dmesg -w then wiggle the connector and see if anything changes.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,771

Re: [Solved] USB Hub - Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

Drives plugged into a four port hub make a clicking noise?  Apparently spinning drives.  Is this a self powered hub? Or a bus powered hub?

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How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

julesm

Member

Registered: 2014-07-29

Posts: 70

Re: [Solved] USB Hub - Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

Okay, some progress...

The spinning drive and clicking noises were a red herring. It was a new usb drive and I hadn't properly formatted/encrypted it. I was in a hurry and screwed that up. Once I properly set up the usb drive, the "clicking" went away and had nothing to do with the usb hub error message.

@teckk - Many thanks for the dmesg recommendation. I know about this command but never really used it. With your advice, I dove into the man page and now feel much more comfortable with it. Great tool to have for future debugging.

@eweller - It's a self-powered hub and all connectors are clean.

The thing is that it seems to be working fine. It's just that there's this message about not being able to enable/bad cable. Perhaps the cable is going bad...  It's an integrated cable so I cannot swap it.  Perhaps this message was always there and I just noticed it this time.

I'm going to mark this as solved as the hub seems to be working as it always did and I'll just chalk the error message up to more of a warning and just ignore it...

Thanks everyone!

Cheers,
Jules