Any USB3 connected hard drive may or may not function. A drive may or may not be seen as attached at boot time. It may or may not be detected by removing and reinserting the USB3 cable. The behavior is very inconsistent.
Example:
A 1TB Western Digital drive is correctly detected at boot. The drive is mounted and functions perfectly. It is then unmounted and physically disconnected from the USB3 cable. An identical drive is then connected to the same USB3 cable and powered up. This drive is never detected. Errors such as
[ 4851.210010] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: Timeout while waiting for a slot
[ 4851.210016] hub 8-0:1.0: couldn't allocate port 2 usb_device
[ 4851.210022] hub 8-0:1.0: cannot disable port 2 (err = -19)
[ 4851.215252] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: Host controller not halted, aborting reset.
[ 4851.215289] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: USB bus 8 deregistered
[ 4851.215400] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 4866.750131] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 4866.750179] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 4866.750184] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: xHCI Host Controller
[ 4866.750318] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 8
[ 4866.755402] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: can't setup
[ 4866.755410] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: USB bus 8 deregistered
[ 4866.755607] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 4866.755610] xhci_hcd 0000:02:00.0: init 0000:02:00.0 fail, -110
[ 4866.755618] xhci_hcd: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -110
appear in /var/log/messages. Subsequent reboots of the machine detect this drive approximately half of the time. "rmmod xhci" takes a few seconds. "modprobe xhci" afterwards does not allow the machine to see the external USB3 drive.
Please note that for the contents of this bug report submitted via ubuntu-bug, I have already performed the rmmod/modprobe steps above. It does not appear that the modprobe step found the USB3 card again. I'll manually attach the results of "lspci -vnvn" to this report after rebooting.
The USB card used here is a Vantec 2-Port SuperSPeed USB 3.0 PCI-e Host Card.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: linux-image (not installed)
Regression: No
Reproducible: Yes
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-33.72-generic 2.6.32.41+drm33.18
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-33-generic x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
Subdevices: 2/2
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
AudioDevicesInUse:
USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0: zeus 2475 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xfe9dc000 irq 16'
Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1984'
Components : 'HDA:11d41984,10280211,00100400'
Controls : 30
Simple ctrls : 18
Date: Tue Aug 23 15:50:31 2011
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=d587d6c2-d3c6-44c7-86f2-f8f9d4965ae3
MachineType: Dell Inc. OptiPlex 755
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=419882ba-beaf-4370-8c51-f24aca1c7d60 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.34.7
RfKill:
SourcePackage: linux
dmi.bios.date: 04/30/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A10
dmi.board.name: 0GM819
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 6
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA10:bd04/30/2008:svnDellInc.:pnOptiPlex755:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0GM819:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct6:cvr:
dmi.product.name: OptiPlex 755
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
My apologies. I have this issue with two separate machines, and I got the two confused in my head when I commented earlier that the USB3 card didn't appear in the "lspci -vnvn" run. It's there as the last entry in the above Lspci.txt file.