After re-installing Lubuntu 12.04 system on my laptop an older problem re-emerged after a few days and installation of different programs: without apparent reason the external mouse and sometimes other usb connected devices (including hdd) stop working. The hdd shows it has tension as it has a light there, and the external mouse flashes for a second when plugged.
I have posted a different version of this problem before. I keep it for now as example of the two answers there. None of them works here.
Logging out-in does nothing, restart does.
The event seems entirely random, after reboot it will reappear after many days or weeks or, rarely, after a few hours.
- http://pastebin.com/0qR8bhhX in
var/log/syslog
after new occurrence (with only external wired mouse and keyboard)
What counts is at the end I guess:
Nov 24 14:06:55 cprq-HP-Compaq-nx8220-PY518EA-ABB kernel: [29953.822962] usb 3-1: USB disconnect, device number 3
Nov 24 14:06:57 cprq-HP-Compaq-nx8220-PY518EA-ABB kernel: [29955.069427] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: host controller process error, something bad happened!
Nov 24 14:06:57 cprq-HP-Compaq-nx8220-PY518EA-ABB kernel: [29955.069439] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: host controller halted, very bad!
Nov 24 14:06:57 cprq-HP-Compaq-nx8220-PY518EA-ABB kernel: [29955.069461] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: HC died; cleaning up
Nov 24 14:06:57 cprq-HP-Compaq-nx8220-PY518EA-ABB kernel: [29955.069492] usb 2-2: USB disconnect, device number 2
I have noticed that on most occasions only the external mouse and keyboard are affected, but not the external HDD. Or if it is, replugging it solves the problem.
I have a dual boot with WinXP: in Windows this never happens, so it is not a hardware issue
I have used Lubuntu Quantal 12.10 and the same problem happened there as well. Upgrading to that would not be a solution
On certain occasion only restarting 2 or even 3 times solved it.
Using the same PC/hardware with Linux Mint 14 (Quantal) Xfce, the problem almost disappeared(it happened once since then). I am not sure whether this 'solution' comes from using Xfce or Mint (I guess Mint 14 Nadia uses the same kernel as Lubuntu Quantal).
lsusb
. I did a Google search onhost controller process error, something bad happened
and the earliest one show up as early as 2002. Then continue to pop up time to time all these years. Issue seems to be driver vs some USB chipset.