32GB USB-Stick not detected - USB hub problem?

[spi4567]

Hello

I've been using some different USB thumb drives with up to 4 GB amount of memory to boot from. Booting these thumb drives on different notebooks (like Samsung NC10, Lenovo R61 and HP Elitebook 2540p with BIOS support to boot from USB devices) works smoothly.

Recently I bought an A-Data 32 GB thumb drive (USB3 device). I can still boot it directly on the Samsung NC10 and the Lenovo R61 but not the HP Elitebook 2540p (it's not detected by its newest BIOS).

My idea was to use another USB thumb drive or PXE on the HP 2540p to load the plop boot manager (version 5.0.11) and trigger to boot from the 32 GB thumb drive. PXE to boot plop works smoothly on the Samsung, I can then chain load the bootloader on the 32 GB thumb drive but unfortunately not on the HP 2540p. No USB thumb drive is detected on the HP by plop (error "no mass storage device" after hitting the USB option from the plop menu). "Use USB MassStorDev" is set to 01 but I also tried settings 02 and 03 without any success.

In some other thread I stumbled across the USB hub problem. USB hubs seem to be not supported (yet?). If I get the "lsusb -t" output right it seems that the HP 2540p only has hubs to connect USB devices to.

Is there any solution (beside a BIOS update which still isn't available) one could think of to get the HP 2540p to boot from the 32 GB thumb drive?

Any help would be appreciated,
Sebastian


"lsusb -t" output, USB thumb drive marked by (***)

/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci_hcd/3p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=hub, Driver=hub/8p, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=stor., Driver=usb-storage, 480M      (***)
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci_hcd/3p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=hub, Driver=hub/6p, 480M
        |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 0, Class='bInterfaceClass 0x0e not yet handled', Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
        |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 1, Class='bInterfaceClass 0x0e not yet handled', Driver=uvcvideo, 480M

[Elmar]

hi,
yes the hub is the problem. its not supported by 5.0.x

regards
elmar

[feelys]

This USB 3.0 Front Panel Kit[/b]]USB 3.0 Front Panel Kit can be installed into a free 3.5 bay of your computer and can be connected internally by using the included PCI Express card. Installing PCI Express cards is easy, simply unscrew and remove your computer's main body case cover. On your PC's motherboard near the rear of the computer you'll see some slots. Then you just plug it in there and take a screw driver to secure it to the back. It expands your system by two USB 3.0 ports which are also downwards compatible to USB 2.0 and USB 1.1. You can connect different USB devices like Docking Station, Card Reader, external enclosure etc.

http://www.espow.com/wholesale-usb-3-0-front-panel-with-express-card.html

[spi4567]

yes the hub is the problem. its not supported by 5.0.x

Thanks for confirming this. Is there hub support on the roadmap for future versions?

This USB 3.0 Front Panel Kit[/b]]USB 3.0 Front Panel Kit can be installed into a free 3.5 bay of your computer ...

Unfortunately it can't. This is a notebook.

[spi4567]

Is there hub support on the roadmap for future versions?

Found myself a statement on the website. It seems to be a matter of code size. Is it because the code doesn't fit into the boot loader area? Can't it be loaded from a file instead?

[Elmar]

It seems to be a matter of code size. Is it because the code doesn't fit into the boot loader area?

correct

Can't it be loaded from a file instead?

no, to read from a file means adding support for at least one file system. this will increase the boot manager size.

[spi4567]

no, to read from a file means adding support for at least one file system. this will increase the boot manager size.

Got it. But if Plop get's chainloaded from GRUB for instance couldn't the additional USB hub support module be loaded by GRUB instead (as GRUB already offers support for many file systems)?
It's like having the Plop functionality included into GRUB as addtional GRUB modules...