[powerstation-owners] New experimental Firmware

[Stefan Nürnberger]

I tried following kernel versions:
- vanilla 2.6.27.4
- vanilla 2.6.27.7
- 2.6.24-r3 (gentoo patchset)

All exhibit the same behaviour. The system freezes without any console 
output, seconds after the usb disk is detected. The firmware recognizes 
the disk while scanning the usb ports, if it is switched on prior to 
boot. In this case linux will lock up during the boot process 
(presumably when the device is detected).

With 2.6.24 the system does not freeze immediately but about 20 seconds 
after the device is detected. Output from 'dmesg' shows that the device 
is detected normally. But the special device file (/dev/sdb*) seems not 
to be created or is removed shortly after. There is no output in dmesg 
right before the freeze except for the device detection. Especially 
there is nothing unusual.

The same is true for usb sticks at the 2.0 ports.

I now thought it could be related to my linux installation. Something 
with udev or similar. So I tried to mount the device with the gentoo 
minimal install cd for powerstation. The device is recognized and device 
files /dev/sdb* are created but when I try to mount it, the machine 
still freezes. Maybe this is a firmware bug, after all.

I have no time for further tests right now. Anyway, If you have some 
idea what could cause this or how to further debug, please let me know.

Stefan