How can a regular user see if the hardware is USB3?

Question

All manuals focus on terminal commands. The use of the terminal is not the problem. But the return is incomprehensible. For example:

lsusb -t
/:  Bus 06.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub,     Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 5000M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 5000M
/:  Bus 05.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
/:  Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
/:  Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 480M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/2p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/8p, 480M
    |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 2, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
    |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 3, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
    |__ Port 6: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
    |__ Port 6: Dev 4, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/2p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/6p, 480M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 480M
    |__ Port 3: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 3: Dev 4, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 3: Dev 4, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 5, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 4: Dev 5, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M

Or:

lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0   2,7T  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0     8G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda2   8:2    0   2,7T  0 part /home
sdb      8:16   0 232,9G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sdb2   8:18   0 224,5G  0 part /
└─sdb3   8:19   0     8G  0 part [SWAP]
sdg      8:96   1  28,9G  0 disk 
├─sdg1   8:97   1   1,4G  0 part /media/ernst/Ubuntu 18.04 LTS amd64
└─sdg2   8:98   1   2,3M  0 part 

I know "/media/ernst/Ubuntu 18.04 LTS amd64" is using a USB-stick using a blue USB3-switch connected to USB3-cable connected to PC blue USB3 port. But how can I make sure these 4 hardwares are really using USB3 speed.

USB3-port ► USB3-cable ► USB3-switch ► USB-stick

I bought the cable from a Chinese website, It's cheap so I do not really trust these stuff. I think that information like 12M, 480M and 5000M. Is that the speed per second?

If it's not really USB3, I can alway send it back to China. lol

Answer 1

To check the actual speed for accessing the drive, you can run the command hdparm -tT /dev/sdg. You need to include both -t for testing buffered reads, and -T for testing unbuffered reads, to get an accurate picture of the low level hardware performance.

Of course, if the hard drive is the performance limiting step rather than the USB bus this won't tell you which is the problem.

Answer 2

I'm quoting the first few lines of the output here:

lsusb -t
/:  Bus 06.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub,     Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 5000M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 5000M
/:  Bus 05.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M

Here we see that the first port is 5000M speed, and USB3. In addition you have a USB2 HUB (480M) with four ports on a different bus.

For the first device we see that it's a USB Storage class - and thus is a memory stick or external drive.

You can test this if you want. Insert the USB3 drive into a USB2 port (or use a USB2 cable), and you will see 480M listed as the speed.

Additionally, a lot of USB drives advertise misleading speeds. I've seen USB3 sticks from reputable vendors (Kingston) that advertise USB3 in large print - and 5MB/s in small print... The speed indicated by lsusb indicates the interface speed, not the actual performance of the device.