USB HUB with 4 ports

[iw2evk]

Hi,

after loaded usbuhcil i've connected a USB HUB with 4 port with insert in
ports 2 stiks 128 Mb and 32 MB fat16.
Usbdrive don't enumerate the drivers (assign only e: to usb hub, but can't
access to sticks..).
Usbhub seem don't recognize hub or disks attached..

For work with a usb hub with attached usbkeys , whath is the right
command?

Thanks


Roberto iw2evk

[Bret]

Are you sure you have the hub plugged into the correct port on the computer?

You may need to install USBUHCIL with the correct Index (PCI Search Index). Each UHCI host controller can have a maximum of only 2 ports, so if you have more than 2 ports, you have more than 1 host controller. If you just do a "USBUHCIL" with no options, it will install for the first UHCI controller (Index 0), which will be at most 2 ports, but you won't know which ports they are (they could be on the front, back, sides, top, or some combination). If you want all of your ports to work, you may need to install more than one instance of USBUHCIL (once for each PCI Search Index).

USBHOSTS can help you figure out how many host controllers you have, but you'll need to figure out which ports go with which host controller by trial-and-error. Once you get it figured out, you should probably set up a USBUHCIL environment variable with the correct Index.

This is all explained in USBINTRO.DOC.

[iw2evk]

hi,

if i load before usbuhcil , then usbhub and finally usbdrive , i' view the usb stick attached to HUB.
If i don't load usbhub, the flash disk are 't recognized and assgned letters (i work with ONLY ONE useb port).

I one of usb flash disk it's fat32 formatetd, the system can't recognize ALL flash disk attached to HUB (fat32 bug in usbuhci/usbuhcil).

ONE SUGGESTION : in the next relase, when usbdrive assign a disk letter, can be possible to display the identifier of disk ?

I.e. F:\ Digital logic usb disk 128MB
G :\ nikon f10

This for help to user to remember the letter for every device (this is a standard feature in others dos usb drivers).

Thank

Roberto iw2evk

[Bret]

Your computer must have a hub internal to the computer somewhere. On most computers, the ports on the outside of the computer are root hub ports (attached directly to the host controller), and you don't need to use USBHUB. Apparently that is not true on your computer. Check the output of USBDEVIC to see what's going on.

*****

Other DOS USB drivers do not work like USBDRIVE does -- they do not support plug-and-play. When the other drivers are first installed into memory is the only time they will assign drive letters. If you unplug or re-plug a disk into the computer, you must uninstall/reinstall or "reboot" the driver for it to be able to recognize what you did and assign the drive letters again. USBDRIVE does not work that way.

USBDRIVE allows you to plug and unplug disks at any time, and it will automatically assign drive letters as you do it. When USBDRIVE is first installed into memory, it does not know what disks are there because it hasn't looked yet. It has simply "reserved" some drive letters, but doesn't actually assign them to a physical disk until you insert a disk (unlike the other drivers, you don't even need a disk to be inserted when you install USBDRIVE). USBDRIVE looks for disks dynamically in the background, not when it is first installed into memory. USBDRIVE works in a way more similar to Windows than what you're used to seeing in DOS.

In DOS, a program running in the background (like USBDRIVE) does not have a good, reliable way of telling you what it is doing. It can't display little pop-up windows the way Windows can (this is a limitation of DOS that can't be overcome). USBDRIVE will beep the speaker if you insert a disk and something is wrong, but if everything works OK it just assigns the drive letter(s) automatically in the background and the disk starts working (again, sort of like Windows). If you want to see what USBDRIVE has actually done, you need to specifically ask USBDRIVE to show you (with a USBDRIVE S, for example -- again, sort of like Windows).

You need to change your way of thinking when using these drivers, since they do not work the way other drivers do. These truly support "plug-and-play", at least to the degree it is possible to do in DOS. All of my other drivers (mouse, keyboard, joystick, etc.) work the same way -- just plug the Device in and it should start working. Plug in a second one of the same thing, and it will start working. Unplug it and replace it with a different one, and it will start working. You can also start with the Device plugged in and then load the Driver afterwards (the way the other DOS USB Drivers work), but you don't have to do it that way.

*****

There is a serious bug in FreeDOS regarding FAT32 drives, which they will fix in a future release. I'm working with them now to try and find a work-around for USBDRIVE and older/current versions of FreeDOS, but haven't yet come up with a solution. I may end up needing to disable FAT32 support altogether for FreeDOS if we can't figure something out. In the mean time, I suggest you either use MS-DOS 7.10 or later, which works correctly with FAT32 drives, or use FAT16. FAT16 will will let you use disks up to 2 GB in size. If your disk is larger than 2GB, you can create multiple partitions each no larger than 2GB, which will each get assigned a different drive letter. Incidentally, some of the other DOS USB drivers will not work on disk with multiple partitions (and neither will Windows XP or Vista), but USBDRIVE works just fine.