[ltp] Thinkcentre M51 USB hotplug issue

Nate Bargmann linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Sun, 14 Nov 2010 07:55:52 -0600


I realize this is the Thinkpad list but there are some very knowledgable
folks on this list so I'll ask anyway.  :-)

I have a second hand ThinkCentre M51 (8143-34U) that overall works very
well except it has an oddity with hotplugging USB devices into any of
the built in USB ports, the kernel never sees the event.  I have a PCI
USB 2.0 board installed from which the hotplug events are seen and a USB
pen is mounted.  The only problem is that it's around back and it's much
handier to use the ports on the front.  More oddly, is that the main
motherboard ports, both on the front and rear do work, but the kernel
sees the devices only upon system start.  After the system is started
it's as though the ports are disabled to new insertions.  For example, I
have a USB mouse plugged into the motherboard ports that works without
issue as it is installed on system start, but inserting a USB pen does
nothing.

How might one go about troubleshooting this?  I am running an up-to-date
Debian Sid system with kernel 2.6.32.  I have also tried testing other
distributions and the results are the same so I suspect there is some
hardware issue and I have checked and rechecked any BIOS settings and
all seem correct.  I am using the latest BIOS update from 1 Feb 2008.

- Nate >>

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