Plop with PCI USB2.0 card really slow

[Diggie]

Hi,

I have a thin client which only has a USB1.1 port. Booting from usb is not native in the bios, but I got it to work with plop. So I was able to boot using the usb1.1 port, which of course is really slow.

I then got myself a USB2.0 card which I fit into the pci slot. This also works, but only it is very very slow. It is almost 10 times slower then the usb1.1 (internal) usb.
The pci card that I got is this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/160616046037

The thin client is a Neoware Eon. See: http://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/NeoEon/

Does anyone know what is going on here? I hope someone can help!

Thanks!

[Diggie]

Unfortunately no reply yet.
I did some more digging myself and found a post from MedEvil from may 2010, saying that he had similar problems with a PCI usb card, and the slow speeds with Plop.

http://forum.plop.at/index.php/topic,220.0.html

Elmar responded by saying that there will be better usb performance in version 5.1.

But since this posting is almost 1 1/2 years old, I am wondering if there is a date set for the release of this version?
Any thoughts?

[Elmar]

Elmar responded by saying that there will be better usb performance in version 5.1.

But since this posting is almost 1 1/2 years old, I am wondering if there is a date set for the release of this version?
Any thoughts?

there is no release date

[Diggie]

Hey Elmar! Thanks for your personal reply!

Great work so far!

But still any idea about when a version 5.1 might be released? Approximately?

Thanks!

[Elmar]

Hey Elmar! Thanks for your personal reply!

Great work so far!

But still any idea about when a version 5.1 might be released? Approximately?

Thanks!

no idea. i wrote no line of code. only some small test programs. the boot manager is a hobby. it seems no one will anything pay for it (except 5 donations), so commercial products come first. currently i don't know if i write it again in assembler or if i should write it in C. so you see, its impossible to say any date. it was planned to start early 2011, but there was no time. however, when i start with 5.1, then a lot of limitations will be removed and it will be written from scratch (that means a lot of work)

[bomz]

little trick possible when you booting LINUX
http://www.solemnwarning.net/kexec-loader/
This floppy a little LINUX kernel with USB CD SCSI drivers. Boot using PLoP your NOTBOOTABLE usb flash, when with GRUB or MEMDISK map and boot this floppy with kexec, kexec load it kernel with full usb 2.0 speed, and boot your LINUX system.

for ex  220 mb iso under PLoP only map to memory about 5 minutes, but Puppy Linux 160 mb from the same flash load immediately

this also possible for windows (load kernel with usb) but have many difficulties
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=ac34da58913e7dc062c7469d0e8752f1&showtopic=21242&st=60   see post 65

[Elmar]

plop boot manager: 43KB (without compression)

kexec-loader (= linux kernel): 742KB (gzip compressed), 1.26MB (uncompressed)

[bomz]

kexec not real loader it's only little part of kernel which you boot first before all other kernel

something like that

enhancer

and as for me I can't make it menu now I boot puppy in command prompt, and it don't see my HD. but work
interesting how big USB part of my 512 kb bios, why they don't do the separately module like sata

[Elmar]

i know exactly what kexec-loader is

[bomz]

I am expperimental with my new boot toy

[Elmar]

I am expperimental with my new boot toy

when you compile kexec-loader by yourself, then it became more powerful and you can add what you want to the kernel. no need to use precompiled modules

[bomz]

I understand, and think it is not very difficult, but I don't know about linux anything
in our case only usb need any cd scsi....

[bomz]

I am talking with people they said, that without PLoP 25 mb image loading from flash about 1 minute and with - 2 second. My speed about 1.2 mb/sec. What is the reason of this difference?
I saw all setting in bios, looking using ASTRA all devices, under DOS with USBASPI about 10mb/sec. Change PLoP to force USB 1.1 - it became more slowly about 10%. under windows 32 mb/sec
May be reason in PIO mode? or change emulation to SCSI?

I use now fixed disk, and try usual flash

[Lutz]

Your USB2.0 PCI-Card is using a VIA chip. VIA USB-chips are known to be slow and incompatible, clearly the worst choice for an USB-chip.

German c't reported, that their latest USB3.0-chips followed VIAs bad habbits and entered the market without certification and they say, that with some USB3 equipment absolutely no communication can be established.

(By the way the SATA-interface on this card is not able to work reliable with SATA300 (same as SATA II) harddisks, your speed will reach about 1 MByte/s because of endless communication retrys, if the harddisk is jumpered to SATA I=SATA150, if not jumpered, the harddisk isn't even recognised (tried with WD EADS 2TB, same on Win7 and Linux))

Try an USB2.0 PCI-Card with NEC-chip and in different PCI-slots.
(Just for reference: can be measured with "hdparm -t -T /dev/sdb" where sdb means second disk in PC, sda is first)