Can't access USB ports

[phil_r]

Hey everyone. I've just rebuilt my machine, got my new kernel up and running, but I'm not seeing any usb ports - had to switch to a PS2 keyboard and mouse. lspci shows a usb controller, but lsusb shows -nothing- at all. lshw also lists the controller, dual boot into Windows and no problem, so it's not a hardware issue. Kernel config here http://pastebin.com/f77d2a350 AMD64 system. Any/all help appreciated.

[ehawk]

Can you boot from a live evaluation CD and see if the USB ports are autodetected/configured, especially if there is a live-evaluation version of the distribution and release you are using. If so, can you compare the relevant files with what is on your hard drive installation and perhaps copy over from the live-evaluation files?

If you have your /home directory on a separate partition, you can also reinstall your distribution without losing much (package managers can get all your add-ons back pretty quickly). Some installation routines actually detect /home even if it is on the installation partition and ask if you want to preserve it.

[phil_r]

Hi. I did boot from a live cd and yes, the USB ports are recognised and work. I noted the lsmod output and went back to my install and reconfigured the kernel. Everything was the same except I hadn't used modules, I'd gone monolithic. I converted all the same settings to modules, made sure the modules start at boot, and no difference. lsmod does show the modules loaded.

I'm not sure what you mean by copying files over, which files? Also as I noted in my first post, this is after a rebuild so rebuilding again is somewhat pointless until I know what's wrong. My /home is seperate so I can do a rebuild easily enough but I have no intention of doing so until I can figure out what's wrong. There's a kernel setting gone astray somewhere, plain and simple - but I can't see which one. If you want to look at my kernel config, follow the url in the first post.

Also, mount shows this:-
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,devmode=0664,devgid=85)

Group ID 85 is the "usb" group, of which I'm a member.

[bwkaz]

Everything was the same except I hadn't used modules, I'd gone monolithic. I converted all the same settings to modules, made sure the modules start at boot, and no difference. lsmod does show the modules loaded. lsmod will not show any loaded modules if you don't have a module-enabled kernel. (Also, "making sure the modules start at boot" is pointless.) lsmod only shows loaded modules; if there are no modules at all, then lsmod will be empty. This is expected.

The drivers will still exist wherever they live in /sys, though, and the /sys/module/* directories might also be created. Not sure on the latter though.

If you want to look at my kernel config, follow the url in the first post. That's horribly long. Grab the config from a kernel that works and diff them. :)

Also, mount shows this:-
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,devmode=0664,devgid=85) Irrelevant: usbfs isn't actually used anymore (...or at least, shouldn't be used); udev creates the same devices in /dev/bus/usb instead. The only thing usbfs was ever used for is user-mode drivers (for things like scanners); if you don't have any USB hubs showing up, then this isn't related to the issue.

What's in your kernel logs related to USB, from a bootup that doesn't work?

[phil_r]

Thanks bwkaz. My point about the modules loading was that I changed from compiled-in to modules and added them into a startup script. I know you can't load modules if it's compiled into the kernel :-)

Anyway, I fixed it, thus:
Fixed it - by cheating, rather than skill... booted with a live cd, chroot'd to my install, into /usr/src/linux, make oldconfig so the -current- config replaces my config, recompiled kernel, rebooted, et voila - usb ports.

Not pretty, not slick, but it got the job done. All usb devices present and accounted for.