Need a USB hub

hansolo77

Hey guys, still building my Nintendo Pi here. I'm having a heck of a time trying to get a USB hub to work. I'm not trying to power the Pi with it, just using it as an extra set of ports. The first one I bought was this one:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/423456/4-Port_USB_20_HUB
I thought this would be all I would need. So when I got home and plugged it in, it powered up (blue LED) ok, but the Xbox Wireless Dongle I have wouldn't work, and neither would my USB keyboard. So I took it back, thinking I needed something with more power. So I came back with this:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/335295/4-Port_USB_30_Hub_with_AC_Adapter
It was 8x the cost, but once again, it had the same symptoms where the keyboard and Xbox dongle don't work with it. So what gives? Both of these devices work fine when connected to the Pi directly. I'm pretty frustrated at this point as you might well imagine. I don't really want to have to drive all the way back to MicroCenter again (it's a 30 minute drive across town so basically an hour both ways) just to buy something else that won't work. Like I said, I'm trying to find a USB hub to add extra ports for my NES build (small enough to fit in the cartridge slot, I'm thinking 4 ports front facing would be great, but even 2 would suffice.

So does anybody have any recommendations? Do I need something with even MORE power? This latest one has a 2amp output, so I'm thinking maybe 3? The Xbox dongle should be pretty well common with people here, but the keyboard might be drawing too much. It's nothing crazy, but it's an old hand me down from a workplace, and has an RFID reader at the top. Maybe I need a new keyboard too, but the Xbox dongle doesn't work either, so it's not really that. Any ideas?

hansolo77

Just a minor update...

I connected this new hub to my computer (rather than the PI) and everything comes up like it should. The USB keyboard comes on, and so does the Xbox controller. So maybe the problem is with the Pi side of things...

Is there any special drivers I need to manually install or something to make this work then?

a_netanel

@hansolo77 I'm having a somewhat similar problem. I'm using a cheap OTG USB "Hub" and some devices work, and some does not.
I believe it has to do with USB 1.1 compatibility with hubs and the Pi's OTG connection.
A USB thumb drive as well as my wireless Logitech MX set works fine, while a cheap usb 1.1 keyboard and a generic gamepad does not.
I tried adding the kernel parameter dwc_otg.speed=1, but it made no difference.

hansolo77

Yeah I've been researching this and trying various fixes since I posted this as well. Since the hub works on my PC, it's gotta be something with the PI, either hardware or software. Everything I'm seeing is saying it's software, that it looks like it's simply a matter of getting the kernel to recognize the device in a certain way. Nothing seems to be working so far, like telling the /boot/cmdline.txt to run with the "old way" or "both ways", etc.

When I have my logs clear, and I connect the hub, I run this command "dmesg" and it gives me a log of what the system does when I connect the hub. This is what I see:

[   42.889045] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 10 using dwc_otg
[   42.990660] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=2109, idProduct=2811
[   42.990686] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[   42.990698] usb 1-1.2: Product: USB2.0 Hub
[   42.990712] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: VIA Labs, Inc.
[   42.991785] hub 1-1.2:1.0: USB hub found
[   42.992060] hub 1-1.2:1.0: 4 ports detected
[   43.289069] usb 1-1.2.1: new full-speed USB device number 11 using dwc_otg
[   43.379069] usb 1-1.2.1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[   43.579048] usb 1-1.2.1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[   43.779077] usb 1-1.2.1: new full-speed USB device number 12 using dwc_otg
[   43.869065] usb 1-1.2.1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[   44.069061] usb 1-1.2.1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[   44.269069] usb 1-1.2.1: new full-speed USB device number 13 using dwc_otg
[   44.689080] usb 1-1.2.1: device not accepting address 13, error -71
[   44.779100] usb 1-1.2.1: new full-speed USB device number 14 using dwc_otg

It's driving me bonkers. Everything I try, and I get the same results. I've even gone as far as to NOT use the RetroPie-Setup script and manually update the entire system using "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade" That took about 30 minutes, and did a LOT of stuff. I was hoping that would install updated drivers or something and make everything suddenly start working.. no such luck.

hansolo77

Continuing my search..
device not accepting address 13, error -71 in google yielded this friendly result:

"The VIA chipset used in that hub is incompatible with the USB OTG port." link

This HUB clearly states VIA in the dmsg log above. So maybe that's my problem?

hansolo77

Another potential find:
https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/273

Seems that there is another problem, where low-speed devices (like keyboard/mice/xbox360 dongle) can't communicate with the high-speed hub. Theoretically, I could connect something high-speed, like a hard drive, and that would work just fine. Anything 2.0 and 3.0 should work, but if it runs on 1.1 you're SOL. The fact that I can make these devices work when connected directly to the Pi actually means that the HUB's 3.0 specification is my culprit.

So I'm hitting 2 barriers here. The chipset in the hub AND the speeds. GRR. I'm gonna have return this thing now.

So again.. anybody know of a compatible HUB that I CAN use?

hansolo77

Final Decision.. I'm going to return this and see if I can find a POWERED USB2.0. I just tried one last thing:

dwc_otg.speed=1 added to the /boot/cmdline.txt file

This tells the Pi to run at the lowest possible bus speed. That means all the USB ports on the Pi are 1.1, the SD card slot/LAN/Wireless are all 12mpbs, and the whole system as a whole runs like it was built in the 90's. This worked, believe it or not. But the speed was too slow for my dongle to properly work. So that tells me, the keyboard is definitely 1.1 (it worked great with that low-speed) and the Xbox dongle requires at least 2.0. The green light came on to show it had power, and the Pi DID detect it, but data transmission was too slow for it to be useful.

Somebody, PLEASE!!! What is a good USB hub that works? I basically know now that I need it to be USB2.0, and it has to be powered as the Pi can't send enough power through the hub.