I'm on the latest beta but have had this issue with only getting around 9 MB/s data transfers ever since adding this card to my microserver " Anker SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI express I/O Card "

 

I use have an external drive 2.5 drive in a USB 3.0 enclousure.

 

Anyone with any advice of why I'm getting restricted to USB 2.0 speeds ?

Not without a syslog! 

 

  Include your VERSION and SYSTEM LOG for support issues

Sorry mate, was posting from me phone earlier when I was out. Back home now and I've just tried a transfer and the highest I got was 17.65 MB/sec My Version is 5.0-rc5

 

I've also attached my syslog.

 

Also to clarify I'm using HP N36L microserver with 4gb ram, 3 x WD 2TB drives & 500gb WD cache drive.

 

I'm currently running sabnzbd and sick beard.

 

 

 

syslog-2012-07-03-1810.txt

kernel: xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: WARN: Stalled endpoint

You have a number of occurrences of the warning shown above, an apparently harmless message associated with USB 3.0 support.  From my research, it appears USB3 support is still young, with reports similar to yours, as well as other issues.  Patches though are working their way through the system, so waiting for future kernel releases should take care of it.  You might try unRAID 5.0-rc1 (includes Linux kernel v3.3.2), because it may include the patches and/or updated releases of xhci_hcd that will fix your problem.  Otherwise, perhaps Tom can locate an update that will help.

 

Related links:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/647973 - user with similar issue

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.usb.general/54588

http://sarah.thesharps.us/2009-06-09-13-30 - in Downloading section, includes git link to her latest xhci module (hard to believe from her picture that she is the author of Linux USB3 support!)

 

On a different matter, I noticed you are using IDE Emulation mode for the SATA support in your BIOS.  I recommend on the next boot going into your BIOS settings, finding the SATA support, and looking for a native SATA mode, preferably AHCI.  There is a small danger when using IDE Emulation mode that a drive failure on one drive may cause a paired drive to also be disabled, resulting in a 2 drive failure.

Cheers RobJ, first off I had a quick look in the bios and disabled " SATA IDE combined mode " can you let me know where I can recheck in an updated syslog to see if this has been changed successfully ?

 

I greatly appreciate your efforts in looking for a fix for the speed issue, I did google that line from the syslog earlier while trying to troubleshoot myself I noticed it was under the line new SuperSpeed USB. I have a basic knowledge but more technical speak and i'm out of my depths

 

I can't seem to find RC1 from the download page, it jumps from beta 14 to RC2. I have read before of people making custom kernels, I don't know whats involved but is it something I could attempt to do to stay on RC5 but with the kernel I require maybe ?

 

Sorry about all the questions but I don't have an working knowledge of unix I learn as I go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers RobJ, first off I had a quick look in the bios and disabled " SATA IDE combined mode " can you let me know where I can recheck in an updated syslog to see if this has been changed successfully ?

The lines with atiixp and ide0 and ide1 will disappear, and additional lines with "kernel: scsi# : ahci" (# representing different numbers) will appear.  Also, no more drive symbols like hda and hdb, they will become like the rest of the sd* symbols.

 

I greatly appreciate your efforts in looking for a fix for the speed issue, I did google that line from the syslog earlier while trying to troubleshoot myself I noticed it was under the line new SuperSpeed USB. I have a basic knowledge but more technical speak and i'm out of my depths

 

I can't seem to find RC1 from the download page, it jumps from beta 14 to RC2. I have read before of people making custom kernels, I don't know whats involved but is it something I could attempt to do to stay on RC5 but with the kernel I require maybe ?

 

Sorry about all the questions but I don't have an working knowledge of unix I learn as I go.

If you don't have much experience with custom kernels, and a lot of time to learn and/or play, I'd wait until Tom either patches the kernel with an updated xhci module or upgrades to a newer kernel with it already there.  There are threads here that do discuss building a custom kernel, such as this older wiki page:  Building a custom kernel, especially the links at the bottom.  At the moment, I'm not sure of an easy way to make RC1 accessible to you, but it may become possible.

 

In my reading, it sounded like some USB 3.0 cards and adapters might be more compatible than others.  That may or may not be something you would want to try, a different card.

Anyone with any advice of why I'm getting restricted to USB 2.0 speeds ?

 

USB 2.0 is rated to 480Mbit (60MB/Sec), though realistically most people don't see above 35MB/Sec.

USB 3.0 is rated to 5Gbit (1GB/Sec), though with current hardware & encoding it's more like 3Gbit (375MB/Sec).

 

While its likely there are driver issues at play the limit you are seeing doesn't appear to be restricted to USB 2.0 speeds as such.

It could be the disk in your external enclosure is pure crap. The drive size of 2.5" means it's a mobile hard drive. Unless you picked up a high-end enterprise drive, most of those are limited to 5400rpm on the high end and slightly under 4200rpm on the average end. Was it a drive you added to the enclosure? If so, how reliable was it before? Have you tried this drive on a different system, even if it's only a USB 2.0 system?

I have the same usb3 card and just booted a copy of unRAID 5.0b11 to do a test for you. I get 120+MBytes/sec with a good usb3 enclosure (Rosewill METAS w/ Hitachi 7K3000). This is all on a 3+ yr old Gigabyte mobo (PCIe gen1).

 

I have a different usb3 card in a HP N40L and get even better xfer rate (160+) to same enclosure. (Can't be sure if it's the card or the gen2 PCIe to credit the better performance.)

 

I doubt that driver is your issue.

 

I have the same usb3 card and just booted a copy of unRAID 5.0b11 to do a test for you. I get 120+MBytes/sec with a good usb3 enclosure (Rosewill METAS w/ Hitachi 7K3000). This is all on a 3+ yr old Gigabyte mobo (PCIe gen1).

 

I have a different usb3 card in a HP N40L and get even better xfer rate (160+) to same enclosure. (Can't be sure if it's the card or the gen2 PCIe to credit the better performance.)

 

I doubt that driver is your issue.

 

Thanks for going to the effort of testing, am I right in thinking you also get the same speeds on the latest beta ?

 

If so I can only think it could be the enclosure thats causing the bottle neck. The enclosure im using is a cheap generic ebay one, a friend of mine does have a USB 3.0 WD mybook, thats gonna be next on my list to test with to further narrow it down to my cheap enclosure.

 

On subject of drives I was using a Fujitsu which I have just googled and is only rated to 1.5Gb/s I found a Hitachi 3.0Gb/s drive and also just tried it with no improvement in speed. Both drives are 5400rpm.

 

 

Thanks for all the posts up till now, the idea of the enclosure as cause fault didn't even cross my mind to be honest. I'll post updates as I test further.

 

 

EDIT :

Its just dawned on me after checking the stats on your drive UhClem, I'm gonna need a drive with SATA 6.0Gb/s to see USB 3.0 speeds 

You'll never see USB 3 speed with a spinning drive. SATA I (1.5Gbps) will support transfer over 100MBps, however the disk may not.

Well I say USB 3.0 speed but even 100Mb/s would be a great improvement

Thanks for going to the effort of testing, am I right in thinking you also get the same speeds on the latest beta ?

 

If so I can only think it could be the enclosure thats causing the bottle neck.

Didn't (and don't plan to) test on any others. Just assume it won't get worse with later versions. And, I agree that your focus should be on your enclosure. Also, don't sweat the SATA gen (I/II/III) of the drive.

The enclosure im using is a cheap generic ebay one, a friend of mine does have a USB 3.0 WD mybook, thats gonna be next on my list to test with to further narrow it down to my cheap enclosure.

While you're at it, you could test your drive/enclosure on your friend's USB3 port.

 

I use have an external drive 2.5 drive in a USB 3.0 enclousure.

 

-what drive is in it?

-does the enclosure have a seperate power supply? (I'd guess not being 2.5")  I've never seen ANY 2.5" enclosure be more than super-slow

You may have better luck with e-sata.

Ok just an update to say I got my hands on the WD mybook with USB 3.0 and still can't get over 10MB/sec I have a second USB 3.0 PCI card which I just popped in and still no joy.

 

I have changed everything I physically can; enclousure, harddrives, cables, PCI card. Only thing left is unraid itself, I may try b11 which other posters have had success with.

 

 

 

 

Ok now running on beta 11 and I'm no further forward, I don't know anyone else with a device that has a USB 3.0 port.

 

It looks like I'm destined to never experience USB 3.0

I have now just formatted the mem stick and tried beta 11 and RC5 with nothing but SNAP installed,  top speed is only 16MB/s or a little under, thats reading from unraid and writing to USB 3.0 Western digital 2TB mybook .

 

When I tried write to unraid from the WD drive transfer starts at 50MB/s but quickly falls to around 16 - 19 MB/s.

 

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