USB 3.0 Sticks are not detected

[H3avy6unner]

Hello FreeNAS Community,

I am running a fresh FreeNAS-11.3-U3.1 installation within ESXi 6.7 on a Dell PowerEdge R720. Until now everything is fine and works as it should. Now I am trying to copy date from a USB 3.0 stick but FreeNAS does not detect any USB 3.0 device at all. Because the R720 does not have any USB 3.0 ports, I am going with a additional PCI card which works fine on other systems. The PCI card is in passthrough mode, so FreeNAS can handle it. USB 2.0 devices are detected without any issues and can be used. usbconfig shows me this:

Code:

root@nas0[~]# usbconfig
ugen0.1: <0x1106 XHCI root HUB> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=SUPER (5.0Gbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen0.2: <vendor 0x2109 USB2.0 Hub> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (100mA)

It seems that the PCI card works and even the USB 3.0 functionality is given. Why FreeNAS cannot handle any USB 3.0 device?

I hope you guys can help me

 

[Samuel Tai]

USB 3.0 works on my bare-metal FreeNAS 11.3-U3.1. I'm using an Intel XHCI root hub.

 

[Samuel Tai]

Does dmesg show that xhci0 controller loaded? If not, you may need to manually load xhci.ko via kldload xhci.ko.

 

[H3avy6unner]

Code:

root@nas0[~]# dmesg | grep xhci
xhci0: <XHCI (generic) USB 3.0 controller> mem 0xfd3ff000-0xfd3fffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci6
xhci0: 32 bytes context size, 64-bit DMA
usbus0 on xhci0

It seems the xhci0 controller is loaded.

 

[Samuel Tai]

I wonder if USB3.0 pass-through needs to be enabled also on the ESX host?

 

[H3avy6unner]

I did not really try that. However, when I try to add a USB 3.0 controller to the FreeNAS VM, ESXi shows me that USB 3.0 is not supported by that VM. I am going to try it anyway but I do not really think it will work. Thanks for you ideas! Would you have any others? ;)

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Isn't USB 3 backwards compatible?
So you should be able to read it on a USB 2 port.
I assume you want USB 3 for the extra speed?

 

[H3avy6unner]

Yes it is. And I am able to read USB 3.0 Sticks on a USB 2.0 port but that is not what I need. As you mentioned I want USB 3.0 for the higher speed and USB 2.0 ports does not help me with that.

 

[subhuman]

Isn't USB 3 backwards compatible?

It is for signalling. Both USB 2 and USB 3 can fall all the way back to USB 1 if necessary.
However, current limits were raised with 3. Both USB 1 & 2 limited devices to drawing 500mA maximum , USB 3 raised that to 900mA. So it's possible to find a USB 3 device that refuses to work in USB 2/1 because it cannot get enough power.

 

[H3avy6unner]

Hey guys,

I do not really why but the USB 3.0 Stick is finally working on the passthrough USB 3.0 PCI card and it will be recognized by FreeNAS at full Speed.

Thank you for your ideas!