Re: Slow USB HDD on SuSe 10.0 (and usb flash stick)

Jeff Harris wrote:
On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:23:15 -0500, Jim Jones wrote:

I have a USB 2.0 200gb usb HDD, it is connected to a 3.0 Ghz
Pentium 4 with 700+ MB of ram. The response time and copy speed of
the USB drive is terribly slow compared to the on board drive. I
realize of course it should be some slower, but not as much
difference as I am seeing. i looked around Google and some of the
Linux forums with no real success.It seems like I have seen this
problem discussed here before, but I do not recall if there was a
solution mentioned. Has anyone run upon a solution or a work around
for this problem.

Thanks

Yes this has been discussed here before many times. Standard cut &
paste follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <!-- -*- SGML -*- --> <deviceinfo version="0.2"> <device> <!-- disable sync for mount -->
<match key="block.is_volume" bool="true"> <match
key="volume.fsusage" string="filesystem"> <match
key="@info.parent:storage.bus" string="usb"> <merge
key="volume.policy.mount_option.sync" type="bool">false</merge> </match> </match> </match> </device> </deviceinfo>



Copy the lines above to a texteditor and save the nosync.fdi file to /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/95userpolicy

After "rchal restart" the sync option is disabled for every
usb-device.


I have just had cause to find this out a rather tedious way by looking
through the buglist since the solution I had used successfully
previously on my home machine was not available in my present remote
location, and searches yesterday in google groups using a slow dialup connection...... did not seem to present me with information such as your concise reply here.

As it happens, near the end of the buglist for Bug 105871 is similar
information, although targeted to a different but existing directory. I
also seems to work as a fix.

For the record, the following information:

Bug 105871 - High speed usb storage device with low data rates: sync
mounts are very slow
[extract begins]
Comment #113 From Bernd Jantzen 2006-02-07 02:48:26 MST

Before this problem is definitely fixed with a patch for SUSE 10.0
(hopefully)or in SUSE 10.1, I suggest to change again the release-notes
and add the possibility to mount ALL usb storage devices without the sync option.

I mean, add what has been suggested above (comments #41 and #50, attachment "nosync.fdi file") to the release-notes in order to enable "normal" users (who do not search through bug reports) to use their usb devices with high speed.

I have had the problem of writing speed to usb storage devices on different computers (PC and notebook) and on different devices (a memory stick and a compact-flash card in a card reader). By adding a file
/usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/95-storage-nosync.fdi
with the suggested content

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!-- disable sync for mount -->
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<match key="block.is_volume" bool="true">
<match key="volume.fsusage" string="filesystem">
<match key="@info.parent:storage.bus" string="usb">
<merge key="volume.policy.mount_option.sync" type="bool">false</merge>
</match>
</match>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

and calling "rchal restart" (I did not have to restart the computer!),
now my usb devices are mounted without the sync option and the writing speed is as fast as experienced under SUSE 9.2 before.

I have also written several MB to the usb memory stick and plugged it off immediately after its LED stopped blinking. After plugging it in again I compared the file on the stick with its copy on the hard disk, and they were identical, so everything was written without problem.

I understand that you want to be sure about data integrity before
installing a patch for every SUSE user. But I really suggest to offer at least this possibility to everyone by adding the above suggestion for all usb devices to the release-notes.

[extract ends]

also
I believe that it is necessary to wait until the usb (flash) drive activity light has stopped flashing before removing it.


also (?)
if a file manager such as konquerer is currently looking at the flash drive, it may need to be re directed away from the drive to help ensure the flash drive ceases indicating activity.

--
ac
.

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