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I've installed an "ORICO Superspeed 5-Port PCI-E to USB 3.0 PCI Expansion Card, Mini PCI-E USB 3.0 Hub Controller Adapter with Internal USB 3.0 20-PIN Connector [ VL800 and VL812 USB 3.0 Controller]" that is supposed to work with Linux on my HP GL380 server which does not have any 4 pin Molex or SATA power connectors. (everything is directly connected to the motherboard and risers)

I'm hoping I won't need to plug in the secondary power as this "should" just be for powering an external USB device that needs power. As my external drives already have power supplies, they should theoretically not need power from the port.

After much searching I found a "Sangoma ST1 PCI-E Riser with Power Adapter +12 V Molex Y Connector" that will plug into an unused PCI-E slot and provide power, but it is rather expensive, so I'm hoping I won't need it...

From the command line:

Using lspci -v the entry for this card is:

 0e:00.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VL805 USB 3.0 Host Controller   (rev 01) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
    Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VL805 USB 3.0 Host Controller
    Physical Slot: 3
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 26
    Memory at fdef0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
    Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 3
    Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/4 Maskable- 64bit+
    Capabilities: [c4] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
    Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
    Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd

The controller card is seen by lsusb as:

 /:  Bus 08.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M

But when I plug in an external drive (that works fine on one of the server's built-in USB ports) nothing happens.

Am I missing something in the setup or should I try to power the USB 3.0 ports and see if it works?

rieka
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    It seems it requires additional power indeed. It isn't only for devices without external power supply, it's required by the card itself. –  Sep 07 '17 at 01:05
  • You confirm my suspicions. I'm buying the adapter - we'll see if it makes things work... – rieka Sep 07 '17 at 03:44
  • A new PSU with molex would be cheaper but I don't know if it's an option. –  Sep 07 '17 at 04:32
  • The power supplies (yes there are two) on this server are hot pluggable directly into the backplane and do not have any pigtails at all. – rieka Sep 08 '17 at 02:30
  • I tried connecting the extra power input. No change. When I contacted the manufacturer's support, they first referred me to a firmware upgrade that required DOS/windows to install, then realized that the particular VIA chipset on the card really was NOT Linux compatible, gave me a refund and changed the product literature to omit Linux support. So my only option seems to be the NEC chipset used on the Silverstone Tek PCI Express Card (which does not require an external power connection). – rieka Sep 11 '17 at 16:03
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    see https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/need-usb-3-0-pcie-card-recommendation-4175497698/ – rieka Sep 11 '17 at 16:10
  • Could it be this? https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=214293 If you still have you may try the some solution. Note: You would be applying the boot parameter to Grub. Some BIOS/UEFI USB settings may disable addon cards but it would still be recognized by the OS. –  Sep 11 '17 at 16:17
  • This is all really annoying. The Silverstone controller says it only works with Windows on the package even though it has a Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720201 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 03) and indeed it will not recognize a USB drive in Linux. – rieka Sep 13 '17 at 23:31

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it's bug, already report here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1409098

dominic16y
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