Re: [LAU] USB on ThinkPad T520

From: Monty Montgomery <xiphmont@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 16:40:28 -0400

> On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 4:06 PM, Robin Gareus <robin@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
>
>> Any hints on how to address this issue, then? If I understand correctly,
>> new USB2-class-compliant devices are not an issue, but on modern
>> machines with only EHCI, USB1-class-compliant devices may or may not
>> work... right?
>
> The primary problem with EHCI is only bandwidth allocation; it's
> inefficient. I'm unaware of any timing problems. That's not to say
> they don't exist, I just haven't run into them myself.
>
> Poor bandwidth efficiency aside, I usually see ~ the same latency and
> timing behavior on UHCi and EHCI with a TT.
>
>> Would forward porting your schedulers be an option? Has anything of this
>> been merged into recent kernels?
>
> I'm unlikely to do this unless I need it myself, sorry :-(. Not
> enough time, too much to do. And the kernel devs are absolutely right
> that replacing a working but inefficient driver with a brand new one
> that is faster but will require long-term testing is not something to
> be done lightly.
>
>
>> Maybe you can do play some tricks on the EHCI controller/scheduler: add
>> an old USB1.1 hub in between the soundcard and the PC... but that's just
>> a shot in the dark.
>
> You'll still be going through the translator in the root hub.
>
> Monty

alrighty, i've compiled some kernels and also tested most of what's in the AVLinux repository, and now i have some interesting data:

two general caveats: neither compiling myself nor whether or not PAE is enabled seems to matter much.
also, this is all still on my new ThinkPad T520.

3.0.6-avl-5 and 3.0.16-avl-7 are the only two which are really useful for me... my RME Multiface on ExpressCard is solid at 64x2 under load, and my ART USB Dual Tube Pre seems solid under load at 128x4 (although the 3.0.16 might need to go to 256x4 -- i haven't lived with it long enough to know -- i do think the xruns are creeping in earlier on 3.0.16 than on 3.0.6).

3.0.30-avl-8 makes the RME useless -- Jack starts, but crashes almost as soon as i start any application (even just jack_mixer alone!). with the USB interface, my system locks up when i start my test puredata patch, even at latencies higher than 128x4.

anything higher than 3.0.30 behaves similarly to 3.0.30 with both cards. i tested up to 3.4.0.rc7.

it's hard to get really accurate numbers without a LOT of time on controlled testing, which i really don't have right now, but from observations of the system in use, it seems pretty obvious that there's a breakpoint somewhere between 3.0.16 and 3.0.30, at which something changed, making both of my interfaces severely less usable. i'm particularly surprised about the RME hardware, which has always been solid for me on various systems and kernels over the years.

i don't know whether that gives anybody enough info to tell much of anything, but perhaps it's useful... for now, i'm running 3.0.6-avl-5-pae in production/performance.

cheers!
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Received on Mon May 14 20:15:04 2012