VIA VL8xx USB 3.0 controller supported?

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

I just recently purchased one of these:

http://www.ianker.com/anker-uspeed-use-3.0-pci-express-card/product/68UPPCIE-2S20PU

Given that the ads for it say that it is 100% compatible with the Intel
xHCI specification, I kind-of had some hope that it would just work with
FreeBSD... if not older versions then at least with the 9.1-RC3 install
that I happen to have on one system here at the moment.

Alas, as far as I can tall, the presence of the thing in the system in
question is not even noticed by the kernel. There are no startup dmesg
messages that seem to even vaguely relate to the thing. It's like it just
isn't physically there.

So what gives? Are these VIA VL8xx controllers supported by/in FreeBSD or
not?

And while we are on the subject, how come most other man pages for most
other drivers for "controller" type things actually do list the specific
hardware controllers that they are known to work with, and yet _none_ of
the USB-related driver man pages (xhci(4), ehci(4), ohci(4), uhci(4))
apparently bother to do this?


Regards,
rfg


P.S. It is of course possible that I just simply got a bad card. I'll be
plugging in into a Windows system I have here soon to try to be sure about
that, one way or the other.


P.P.S. Oddly, ArchLinux (LiveCD) didn't appear to see the thing either.

[Hans Petter Selasky]

Post by Ronald F. Guilmette
http://www.ianker.com/anker-uspeed-use-3.0-pci-express-card/product/68UPPC
IE-2S20PU
Given that the ads for it say that it is 100% compatible with the Intel
xHCI specification, I kind-of had some hope that it would just work with
FreeBSD... if not older versions then at least with the 9.1-RC3 install
that I happen to have on one system here at the moment.
Alas, as far as I can tall, the presence of the thing in the system in
question is not even noticed by the kernel. There are no startup dmesg
messages that seem to even vaguely relate to the thing. It's like it just
isn't physically there.
So what gives? Are these VIA VL8xx controllers supported by/in FreeBSD or
not?
And while we are on the subject, how come most other man pages for most
other drivers for "controller" type things actually do list the specific
hardware controllers that they are known to work with, and yet _none_ of
the USB-related driver man pages (xhci(4), ehci(4), ohci(4), uhci(4))
apparently bother to do this?

Hi,

There are generic classes for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 and the list of supported
hardware would be ever growing and unfair.

What does pciconf -lv output?

--HPS

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

Post by Hans Petter Selasky
There are generic classes for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 and the list of supported
hardware would be ever growing and unfair.

"unfair"?

I think that both of the objections you just raised could also be applied
to various ethernet chipset drivers, and yet on the man pages for those,
in general, we can see lists of the specific supported chips for each.

It only seems to be the man pages for the drivers relating to USB chipsets
that are breaking with this tradition by ommitting this vital information.

Post by Hans Petter Selasky
What does pciconf -lv output?

Here it is. I personally don't know how to read this, so any help would be
appreciated. (It does appear to me however that the VIA USB 1/2 controllers
that are present on the motherboard _are_ being seen, but that, as I have
said, the kernel is not even seeing the presence of the new USB 3.0 PCIe
add-in card.)


P.S. Unfortunately, I am not actually able to test the card in any Windows
system at the moment. I simply do not have access to any such that have PCIe
slots.


***@pci0:0:0:0: class=0x060000 card=0x03361106 chip=0x03361106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'K8M890CE Host Bridge'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:0:1: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x13361106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'K8M890CE Host Bridge'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:0:2: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x23361106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'K8M890CE Host Bridge'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:0:3: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x33361106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'K8M890CE Host Bridge'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:0:4: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x43361106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'K8M890CE Host Bridge'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:0:5: class=0x080020 card=0x00000000 chip=0x53361106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'K8M890CE I/O APIC Interrupt Controller'
class = base peripheral
subclass = interrupt controller
***@pci0:0:0:7: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x73361106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'K8M890CE Host Bridge'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:1:0: class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0xb1881106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800/K8T890 South]'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
***@pci0:0:2:0: class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0xa2381106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
***@pci0:0:3:0: class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0xc2381106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
***@pci0:0:15:0: class=0x01018f card=0x72531462 chip=0x05911106 rev=0x80 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT8237A SATA 2-Port Controller'
class = mass storage
subclass = ATA
***@pci0:0:15:1: class=0x01018a card=0x72531462 chip=0x05711106 rev=0x07 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE'
class = mass storage
subclass = ATA
***@pci0:0:16:0: class=0x0c0300 card=0x72531462 chip=0x30381106 rev=0xa0 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller'
class = serial bus
subclass = USB
***@pci0:0:16:1: class=0x0c0300 card=0x72531462 chip=0x30381106 rev=0xa0 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller'
class = serial bus
subclass = USB
***@pci0:0:16:2: class=0x0c0300 card=0x72531462 chip=0x30381106 rev=0xa0 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller'
class = serial bus
subclass = USB
***@pci0:0:16:3: class=0x0c0300 card=0x72531462 chip=0x30381106 rev=0xa0 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller'
class = serial bus
subclass = USB
***@pci0:0:16:4: class=0x0c0320 card=0x72531462 chip=0x31041106 rev=0x86 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'USB 2.0'
class = serial bus
subclass = USB
***@pci0:0:17:0: class=0x060100 card=0x33371106 chip=0x33371106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT8237A PCI to ISA Bridge'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-ISA
***@pci0:0:17:7: class=0x060000 card=0x337e1106 chip=0x287e1106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT8251 Ultra VLINK Controller'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:18:0: class=0x020000 card=0x72531462 chip=0x30651106 rev=0x7c hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT6102 [Rhine-II]'
class = network
subclass = ethernet
***@pci0:0:19:0: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x337b1106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT8237A Host Bridge'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:19:1: class=0x060401 card=0x337a1106 chip=0x337a1106 rev=0x00 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT8237A PCI to PCI Bridge'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
***@pci0:0:24:0: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x11001022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
device = 'K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:24:1: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x11011022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
device = 'K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:24:2: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x11021022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
device = 'K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:0:24:3: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x11031022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
device = 'K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
***@pci0:2:0:0: class=0x030000 card=0x0f021002 chip=0x5b621002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
device = 'RV380 [Radeon X600 (PCIE)]'
class = display
subclass = VGA
***@pci0:2:0:1: class=0x038000 card=0x0f031002 chip=0x5b721002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
device = 'RV380 [Radeon X600]'
class = display
***@pci0:128:1:0: class=0x040300 card=0x72531462 chip=0x32881106 rev=0x10 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'VIA Technologies, Inc.'
device = 'VT1708/A [Azalia HDAC] (VIA High Definition Audio Controller)'
class = multimedia
subclass = HDA

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

Nevermind!

I tried the card in two other systems and in both cases it was recognized
just fine, at least by a Linux-based LiveCD that I have here (and also
by Windows).

It is also recognized just fine on one of these other systems when I booted
to the FreeBSD 9.1-RC3 LiveCD (but is not seen on the same system by FreeBSD
8.3-RELEASE, which is perhaps to be expected).

So anyway, my apologies for wasting electrons on what now appears to be
a non-issue. The card is perfectly good, and is properly recognized by
recent FreeBSD releases. It just does not get along at all well with one
particular and specific older MSI motherboard that I happen to have here.
(I was going to trash that one anyway, and now I may do so sooner rather
than later.)


Regards,
rfg


P.S. To whomever maintains the {x,e,o,u}hci drivers: The vendor code
0x1106 apparently corresponds to "VIA Technologies, Inc."

I only mention this because I noticed that in the startup syslog messages
on 9.1-RC3, my Nvidia USB 2.0 controller was properly identified as <Nvidia>,
whereas this new card was identified only as <0x1106>.

Ref: http://pciids.sourceforge.net/v2.2/pci.ids