USB extremely slow with USB-2.0 (very similar to #464)

[Klaus Wendel]

Accessing a Canon Scanner CanoScan 9950F with USB-2.0 activated is still very slow. The transfer rate is similar to USB-1.
Disabling virtual USB-2.0 controller results in a faster(!) access, but transfer rate is furthermore very slow.

Version: VirtualBox 2.1.0
Host OS: Linux Ubuntu intrepid 8.10, Kernel 2.6.27-11-generic
Guest OS: Windows XP Home Edition, updated to SP3

Have a look at the attached vbox.log

Extract of dmesg - part 1: connecting scanner

[ 6728.248042] usb 2-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 10
[ 6728.384368] usb 2-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

Extract of dmesg - part 2: starting Guest OS with VirtualBox

[ 6763.708027] usb 2-6: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 10

Extract of USB-Hardware at host (lsusb -v):

Bus 002 Device 008: ID 04a9:2219 Canon, Inc. CanoScan 9950F
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass          255 Vendor Specific Class
  bDeviceSubClass       255 Vendor Specific Subclass
  bDeviceProtocol       255 Vendor Specific Protocol
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x04a9 Canon, Inc.
  idProduct          0x2219 CanoScan 9950F
  bcdDevice            3.01
  iManufacturer           1 Canon
  iProduct                2 Scanner
  iSerial                 0 
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength           39
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0xc0
      Self Powered
    MaxPower               10mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           3
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass    255 Vendor Specific Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol    255 Vendor Specific Protocol
      iInterface              0 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x83  EP 3 IN
        bmAttributes            3
          Transfer Type            Interrupt
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0001  1x 1 bytes
        bInterval               8
Device Qualifier (for other device speed):
  bLength                10
  bDescriptorType         6
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass          255 Vendor Specific Class
  bDeviceSubClass       255 Vendor Specific Subclass
  bDeviceProtocol       255 Vendor Specific Protocol
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  bNumConfigurations      1
Device Status:     0x0001
  Self Powered

[Jonathan Liu]

I am having this issue as well. I'm using Arch Linux 2009.02. It appears to be a regression from VirtualBox 1.5.6. VirtualBox 1.5.6 does not have this issue.

uname -a: Linux server 2.6.28-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Feb 13 10:23:36 UTC 2009 i686 Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

[jurabonn]

I am having the same Issue with an USB DVB-T stick.

[Benjamín Valero Espinosa]

I am having the same issue with an USB Video Capturer, with Windows guest and Fedora host.

[antares]

I am having the same issue with the Scanner CanoScan 8800F from Canon (Windows XP as guest, Ubuntu 9.04 64bit as Host)

[Anton Morozov]

I am having the same issue with the Apple iPhone (VirtualBox 2.2, Windows XP SP3 as guest, Ubuntu 8.10 as Host). VirtualBox 1.5 doesn't have this issue, it's starts from 2.0.

[rob@robtirrell.com]

I'm having the same problem with Ubuntu 9.04/9.10 32-bit hosts and Windows XP (32) and Vista (64) guests. Any sort of USB activity is very slow, but all-around the speed is reported as 2.0/EHCI. I think #4083, #986 and #4261 are all reports of the same problem. The problem seems to be *mostly* showing up on Ubuntu hosts with Windows guests, but that might not have anything to do with it...

[jptech]

"The problem seems to be *mostly* showing up on Ubuntu hosts with Windows guests, but that might not have anything to do with it..."

It happens on both Windows and Linux hosts for me.

[Louis-Philippe Savoie]

Same here. Host is Fedora 12 x64. Guest is Windows 7 x64 Ultimate edition. I'm using an iPod Classic and iTunes 9.0.3. Synchronizing my library takes an afternoon ... this is long in my book.

[Tony Plack]

Linux Host, Linux guest, same issue happening with me

[jostmart]

+1 (Ubuntu host, XP VM).

$ lsusb 
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 147e:2016 Upek Biometric Touchchip/Touchstrip Fingerprint Sensor
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0a5c:2110 Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth Controller
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID xxx Apple, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Linux ** 2.6.31-20-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 8 09:02:26 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Bus 002 Device 002: ID xxx Apple, Inc. 
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00

[keplero]

I have the same problem!!! Host: Ubuntu 10.04 x64 Guest: Windows XP x86 Virtualbox 3.1.6 Scanner Canoscan 4400F

Scanning is really slow and it takes around 5 minutes (!) to scan a single page! I hope someone will fix it...

[chicky462]

Same problem on my Ubuntu 10.04 Host with Windows XP guest with Virtualbox 3.2.4 (USB 2.0 enabled).

Watching TV with a USB DVB-T stick (AF9015 chipset) is very slow, picture and sound are stuttering which makes it impossible to watch. Same DVB-T stick on native Windows XP works great.

Is there the chance that this issue will be fixed soon? Thanks ins advance.

[Anton Morozov]

Replying to chicky462:

Is there the chance that this issue will be fixed soon? Thanks ins advance.

I don't think so. This ticket are 1,5 years old and no one from VB team has told something here. I think you must open a new ticket for the latest version of VirtualBox.

[nars]

I do get same problem with VirtualBox 3.2.4 on kernel 3.4.11 (unRAID), with USB 2.0 EHCI option enabled on the VM settings it's actually slower than with the option disabled!

Tried with an external HDD and with a pen drive (both can read at near 30MB/s on the host system), with USB 2.0 EHCI enabled I can only read them at around 0.5MB/s with USB 2.0 EHCI disabled I can get near 3MB/s :(

[nars]

Just wanted to add that did now tested with 3.9.6 kernel and latest vbox v4.2.16, now usb share with guests seems a lot better, I can now get (with same pen I did posted my results on the post above) 5MB/s with usb2 support enabled and 8MB/s with usb2 support disabled... both ways a lot more responsive than before, for sure, but I can't just understand why it is still faster with usb2 support disabled, it makes no sense to me :(

I can see on forums lots of people complain about usb speed problems with vbox, but still some people apparently doesn't have such issues... is there something specific on kernel that should be enabled when compiling it that may make a difference on this? I'm thinking about that as unRaid uses a minimalistic kernel config and maybe something required for improved performance is disabled... but just a guess.

If there is any further infos I can share to help investigating the problem please let me know.

[Artem S. Tashkinov]

I can confirm this issue on a Linux host.

Direct USB2 flash drive read speed under Linux is approximately 30MB/sec, while in VirtualBox 4.3.16 I only get 6MB/sec.

Linux kernel: 3.16.2 i686 PAE, 16GB RAM.

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.