microAmiga1 and USB 2.0. Is it possible?

I recently bought a new keyboard that unfortunately requires USB 2.0 support from the computer it is attached to. Every system I have works fine with it, but unfortunately, my beloved microA1 doesn't.
The reason seems to be that the system doesn't support USB 2.0 and I wonder if anyone knows any way to add that. Maybe a working PCI card or something else?

Did you try to set U-Boot variables?
usb0_enable=on ( rear USB ports )
stdin=usbkbd ( input for U-Boot )

With this configuration I can boot with USB keyboards - but I don't know, if my keyboard is USB1 compliant or not.

If you find USB2.0 card working in Micro ( I tried three working in Pegasos 2 and XE, but no worked in Micro ), you for sure cannot access U-Boot menu. If it will works, only after boot to AmigaOS.

And last what you can try is old USB hub.

Requiring USB 2.0 for a keyboard is strange.
Maybe it only needs the increased USB 2.0 power supply (0,5A/2,5W, USB 1.x was 0.1A/0,5W), for example if it has something like lit keys? In that case using an externally powered USB hub may work.

@walkero

On my MicroA1, I use an old IBM PS/2 keyboard and an optical mouse with a green USB to PS/2 adapter. I always found these PS/2 devices to be more reliable than USB equivalents.

However, my three USB sticks work well as USB1 storage devices.

---
redfox

Thank you all for your replies.

@joerg
The keyboard I bought is wireless and uses the new Logi Bolt dongle which seems to require the USB 2.0 for some of the features it has. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on USB 1.1 at all.

I also bought a new KVM that supports USB 2.0 because the previous one didn't. But it doesn't help with the microA1.

@redfox
I agree that for the microA1 the PS/2 is more reliable. I prefer to use the USB connection though because I have a KVM and multiple machines connected. This way I save space and keeps my beloved microA1 easy to start and use.

@sailor
My problem is not using it with UBoot but in the OS. In cases I would like to use it in UBoot I would connect a cabled keyboard and do the work I need.

I have checked on Amazon a few cards but I am not aware if their chipset is supported at all.

This one seems interesting with support for both USB 1.1 and 2.0 based on a VIA chipset
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/fasient1-Ad ... r-Computers/dp/B095HPHNSQ

The following one uses an NEC chipset.
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/CERRXIAN-Ex ... ler-Adapter/dp/B0868GT93S

Is there a way for us to know if any of these chipsets are supported by AmigaOS 4 at all?

There is also the Spider II from Elbox, but its price is high. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any info on what kind of chipset this card uses. Does anyone have any clue?

@walkero
If you have a suitable PCI USB card with an EHCI controller (USB2) on it, it should be working - although I've never tried it myself.

@sailor

I read your article about the MicroA1 over at Amiga Portal(great article by the way) and there you mentioned that in "rare cases a PCI graphics card works" if I did understand it correctly.

Do you know what card/firmware would make it work?

@walkero
USB 2.0 with VIA and NEC chipset mostly works. As I know, there is not any complete list with compatible chips.

Here you find discussion with cards working with AmigaOS 4.

But main problem is often Micro. As I wrote - my USB cards working in Pegasos and XE, not works in Micro.
My RTL8169 the same - ok in Pegasos and XE, not in Micro. Also not works in Sam440ep-flex, which is very stable and nice working machine.

On the other way, all my SATA 3x1x cards works in my Micro.
I am suspicious it has something to do with Micro builtin DMA-fix - it somehow reduces compatibilty of PCI cards. ( see here )

@khayoz
unfortunatelly, my Micro never worked with second graphics card. I tested several, PCI, AGP and PCIe.

There probably were some succesfull attempts - becouse Hans wrote it in his reccomendations here, part "AmigaOne-XE (With DMA Fix) and the Micro AmigaOne". ( this the same link like in previous reply )
But I don't know working configuration.

@sailor

Ahh ok, thanks for the clarification.

Thank you all for your replies.
I ordered the cards I mentioned above and one more to try them out and see if there is one that would work on my microA1, and will let you know afterwards.

I will test them on other systems as well, if possible, so to see if they work there as well.

I hope at least one will work, so as to avoid to use an extra keyboard only for the microA1, let's see.

@walkero

I can't imagine how anyone would survive with only USB1.1 on an AmigaOne. Until I retired my XE it would have driven me crazy being stuck at such slow speeds.

The Spider is a rebranded NEC. IIRC I plugged one in my XE and it worked fine. They change the PCI ID in the firmware or something to turn it into a special Amiga PCI card you pay extra for.

From the above I would recommend NEC. It's just I've had trouble with VIA and I gave up. I bought a VIA card and by all counts it had the same exact PCI IDs as the working VIA card listed but it just crashed and burned in USB2 mode. I then picked up an NEC card and it worked off the bat. Funny as it was almost ten years since I gave up on that and then got an email earlier this year about debugging why my VIA USB2 card crashes. LOL. The investigation goes on.

@Hypex

Likewise, I abandoned the onboard USB on my A1XE and added a USB2 card that I used for all USB.

As a MicroA1 owner, I have given up with upgrading the beast.
Everything I have tried on the PCI port hasn't worked. Yes, USB1.1 sucks big time.

Good luck with your quest Walkero.

@daveyw

There's one thing only the built in USB can do and that's boot off USB. Slow but works. Well 13MB seems slow to me.

Also, I found SanDisk sticks can be hot plugged directly in the ports. No need for resistor hacks or hubs. I have some SanDisk stick and when I plug in and pull them out of the back ports they are detected.

A couple of days ago I got the 3 PCI cards. Two of them are based on NEC chipset and the other on VIA as described in previous message of mine. Unfortunately, none of them worked on the microA1. When I have them plugged the system starts, but unfortunately AmigaOS 4 crashes. Unfortunately, I do not have a serial connected as to take any information on the reason it crashes.

The interesting thing is that at least for one I tested, I checked on uboot the list with the PCI devices and there were extra lines for two devices. That makes me think that uboot probably see the card, but it might even config it in a wrong way that makes the OS go down.

Also, I tried with all the latest beta software on OS and that didn't help at all.

One extra thing I tried was to disable the onboard USB completely, but I haven't tried to set the hard disk to anything else than UDMA.

But, by installing the latest beta USB software this was enough to make my new keyboard work fine when connected through the KVM on the onboard USB 1.1. Actually I am writing this text using it with my microA1. This means that the reason it didn't work it seems was because of some kind of driver.

So, although I didn't manage to make the USB 2.0 PCI cards to work on my microA1, in the process I found a solution that makes this computer usable again.

My tests do not stop here though. I will test those PCI cards on my X5000 and see if they are working there. If not, I will try to grab as much information as possible and share with the developers. Maybe one day we will be able to have USB 2.0 on a microA1.

@walkero
wish good luck with testing.
But even if your cards are OK in X5000, they cannot works in Micro. I had many such cases with my card.

Micro has her own idea about PCI card compatibility

@sailor
Quote:

Yeah, that's true. I am happy I can use it now without those cards. But if they work on other systems, at least we will know that we have support for them. The X5000 has a lot of USBs on board and for sure I do not need them in there, but for the microA1 that would be beneficial.