Some Systems With USB 2.0 Hardware Might Hang or Panic (5030842)

Systems with certain USB 2.0 hardware might frequently hang or panic when running this Solaris release. These problems are associated with USB 2.0 devices that are not based on the NEC chip set. When these problems occur, the system generates error messages that involve Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI).

Workaround: Depending on your system's hardware configuration, choose one of the following options:

• Replace the USB 2.0 host controller hardware with hardware that is based on the NEC chip set. USB 2.0 hardware that is based on the NEC chip set is known to work well with the Solaris OS.

• On systems whose USB 2.0 host controller hardware is built into the motherboard and that have spare PCI slots, perform the following steps:

  1. Add a PCI-based USB 2.0 card that is based on the NEC chip.

  2. Become superuser.

  3. Disable USB 2.0 on the motherboard and enable USB 2.0 support only through the PCI card. Issue the following commands:

     # update_drv -d -i '"pciclass,0c0320"' usba10_ehci # update_drv -a -i '"pci1033,e0"' usba10_ehci # reboot

  4. For faster operation, connect your USB 2.0 devices to the card's ports instead of the original ports on the motherboard.

• Even if you cannot add new USB hardware to your system, you can still disable your system's EHCI by performing the following steps:

  1. Become superuser.

  2. Issue the following commands:

     # update_drv -d -i '"pciclass,0c0320"' usba10_ehci # reboot

USB 2.0 ports are operated by two companion hardware pieces:

• EHCI for the high-speed piece

• Either Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) or Universal Host Controller Interface (UHCI) for the low-speed and full-speed piece

On x86 based systems, drivers for both OHCI and UHCI exist. On SPARC based systems, only OHCI USB 1.1 host controller hardware is supported. Therefore, only USB hardware with OHCI companion controllers continue to work on SPARC systems whose companion EHCI controller is disabled. Ports of the USB hardware remain operational even with EHCI disabled, provided that your system has the proper OHCI or UHCI drivers. USB 2.0 devices that are connected to these ports run only as fast as a USB 1.1 device.

To verify whether EHCI and OHCI host controllers exist on your SPARC based systems, type:

# prtconf -D

Check the output for EHCI entries next to one or more OHCI entries, similar to the following example:

pci, instance #0 (driver name: pci_pci)
usb, instance #0 (driver name: usba10_ohci)
usb, instance #1 (driver name: usba10_ohci)
usb, instance #0 (driver name: usba10_ehci)