Left USB port stopped functioning

[firebrd_1979]

Hi everyone,
I received my Pinebook PRO a few days ago and it has worked fine up until this morning. When I plug a mouse (anything) into the USB port attached to the mainboard (left USB) , nothing happens. The other USB port works fine still.

After I received it, I flashed MrFixit2001 Debian image to eMMC and everything was functional. Last night I turned it off (no hibernate etc.), put it on the charger and this morning no left USB anymore.

I tried Debian from sdcard today and also there, I get no USB.

lsusb gives:

Code:

Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0c45:6321 Microdia
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 258a:001e
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Here's a picture of the USB slot:
Top:

https://pasteboard.co/Jc13GGv.jpg
Bottom:
https://pasteboard.co/Jc14hsv.jpg

I'm on the default kernel that came with the image:
Linux 4.4.213 #1 SMP Fri Feb 7 13:03:55 EST 2020 aarch64 GNU/Linux

It looks as if nothing even registers when I plug something in this port as there's no lines added to dmesg. When I plug the same devices I'm testing with into the right port, dmesg shows what's plugged in etc. (tried this with a mouse, usb stick and headset) Is there anyone who has an idea or would this be a hardware/port defect?

[diodelass]

This seems to be some sort of issue with the USB drivers in the vendor kernel, I guess. My own unit did the same when I was using the Debian install that the first units shipped with. For what it's worth, the issue totally vanished when I switched to Manjaro (which uses the mainline kernel). If you can find a distro that gives you a mainline 5.6 kernel and suits your needs, you might also find it solved.

If you prefer Debian over Manjaro because you prefer older, more stable software, I understand - but do consider that the Pinebook Pro itself is not really very old or stable hardware yet, and it might be much better-served by a distro that has more up-to-date packages than Debian typically offers.

[firebrd_1979]

This seems to be some sort of issue with the USB drivers in the vendor kernel, I guess. My own unit did the same when I was using the Debian install that the first units shipped with. For what it's worth, the issue totally vanished when I switched to Manjaro (which uses the mainline kernel). If you can find a distro that gives you a mainline 5.6 kernel and suits your needs, you might also find it solved.

If you prefer Debian over Manjaro because you prefer older, more stable software, I understand - but do consider that the Pinebook Pro itself is not really very old or stable hardware yet, and it might be much better-served by a distro that has more up-to-date packages than Debian typically offers.

I think you may be right. I put the SDcard I installed Debian from back in and also had no USB port there now. Then I decided to install Debian from DanielT's script onto eMMC. Debian 11 wouldn't boot for me but then I tried again with Debian 10 and the USB port came back functional.

So this tells me it wasn't a hardware issue but something in software.

Debian 10 installed this way with XFCE seems lighter on resources than MrFixit2001's install is but that could be just my perception.

As for what caused this issue, I have no idea, but I'm now happily running Debian 10 just like on my desktop! I tried Manjaro as well but I personally like Debian + backports better.