USB Drive Reliability

[Oliver Fromme]

Jason C. Wells wrote:
 > I am running FreeBSD 6.3.  I have found that attaching and detaching USB 
 > drives to my box is unreliable. Is this the experience of other users?

I guess I've been lucky, because I haven't had much of a
problem with various USB storage devices so far.  I haven't
been on FreeBSD 6.x for long, though; I went straight to
7-current a few months before 7.0 was released, then
followed the 7-stable branch.

The only thing that doesn't work is detaching a device
(whether USB or other) while it is still mounted.  This
is supposed to be fixed in 8-current.  (My personal
impression is that 8-current is quite reliable at the
moment, so if you have a spare machine it might be worth
giving it a try.  Be sure to subscribe to the -current
mailing list so you don't miss any important "heads up"
messages.)

Another thing worth mentioning is that a new USB stack
is under development by Hans Petter Selasky.  I'm not
sure when it will be committed to 8-current, but I think
it's pretty much ready.  It will certainly fix some of
the problems people are seeing with the old USB stack.

Best regards
   Oliver

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