The Linux Kernel In 2018 Finally Deems USB 3.0 Ubiquitous Rather Than An Oddity

[starshipeleven]

Eh, what, you've got to be kidding. Linux is just getting around now to turn on USB 3.0 by default? USB 3.0 stuff has been on the market for YEARS, probably i've been seeing USB 3 hard drives for about 4 years now. And they are JUST NOW getting around to enabling it? Absolutely pathetic. Furthermore, USB2 is way too slow for todays 4 TB hard drives, it would take far too long to copy a lot of data to or from such a drive. USB 3 is a must have feature and has been for years. Get with the times, Linux.

Distros have enabled USB 3.0 by default in their own downstream kernel config a long while ago.

Might shock you, but Linux numbers on desktop are tiny if compared to embedded and server. And there USB 3.0 isn't that common even now.

[starshipeleven]

It's only half as slow at worst, since the bottleneck on USB3 HDDs is the hard drive itself. But most external HDDs aren't so fast to begin with. Get with the facts.

My external drives hit 75-95 MB/s and they are random laptop drives mounted in USB 3.0 enclosures. On USB 2.0 they don't go faster than 35.

That's significant. I mean, OK, with a single USB 3.0 port and a hub I can move files between 3 drives at the same time without bottlenecking them, so there is a ton of bandwith they don't use, but we are talking of 60% or more speed increase over USB 2.0.

If you need to move over VMs, movies or other large files yeah, it does matter a lot.

[FireBurn]

Seriously who uses the defconfig? Either you'll use what's set with you distro or you'll use a custom kernel - this is non-news

[johanb]

Seriously who uses the defconfig? Either you'll use what's set with you distro or you'll use a custom kernel - this is non-news

I do.

Apparently the author of this patch does aswell.

[Weasel]

Guess you haven't been keeping up, but the latest spinning platter hard drives can top 250 MB/s sustained sequential transfer rate.

Such as? Not even WD Black can reach those speeds. For external hard drives that's quite the feat.

[FireBurn]

I do.

Apparently the author of this patch does aswell.

You've made no changes what so ever to your kernel config? You've been living without USB3 support all these years?

[johanb]

You've made no changes what so ever to your kernel config? You've been living without USB3 support all these years?

I have made changes, but not that specific change no.

My USB ports are used for my keyboard, mouse, a slow 4GB USB stick, a slow sdcard reader, uploading books to my kindle and gamecube controller adapter which are all USB2.0 so I don't see why I would need to anyway.

Still though, in a few years I might buy a new USB stick or something with a bit more speed where this change might be useful, so I'm happy that they enable this by default so I don't have to enable it myself.

[starshipeleven]

Such as? Not even WD Black can reach those speeds. For external hard drives that's quite the feat.

This wd black from 2015 has a 215MB/s read/write speed (sequential) https://www.storagereview.com/wd_black_6tb_hdd_review

While probably 2.5' drives won't run so fast, nothing prevents you from placing it in an external 3.5'' enclosure if you want faster speeds.

[starshipeleven]

You've made no changes what so ever to your kernel config? You've been living without USB3 support all these years?

He isn't one of us, lol.

[FireBurn]

I have made changes, but not that specific change no.

My USB ports are used for my keyboard, mouse, a slow 4GB USB stick, a slow sdcard reader, uploading books to my kindle and gamecube controller adapter which are all USB2.0 so I don't see why I would need to anyway.

Still though, in a few years I might buy a new USB stick or something with a bit more speed where this change might be useful, so I'm happy that they enable this by default so I don't have to enable it myself.

Without xhci enabled those USB3 ports wouldn't work at all...