USB ftdi_sio problem with RFXCOM

[Jezza34000]

Describe the issue you are experiencing

Hi !
I can't get my RFXCOM to work, I get the following error message:

Look like this issue : #1800

I use 4 USB devices :

1. RFXCOM RFXrtx433
2. Bluetooth SENA UD-100
3. Itead Sonoff Zigbee 3.0
4. Ziblue RFPLAYER

Only the RFXCOM had problem. Tested on my Ubuntu laptop it's working well.

I'm using a VM on a QNAP Nas TS-253D

What operating system image do you use?

ova (for Virtual Machines)

What version of Home Assistant Operating System is installed?

10.5

Did you upgrade the Operating System.

Yes

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Plug RFXCOM into HA's usb port
2. Got error message on HA startup

Anything in the Supervisor logs that might be useful for us?

Nothing usefull

Anything in the Host logs that might be useful for us?

Nothing usefull

System information

System Information

version	core-2023.9.3
installation_type	Home Assistant OS
dev	false
hassio	true
docker	true
user	root
virtualenv	false
python_version	3.11.5
os_name	Linux
os_version	6.1.45
arch	x86_64
timezone	Europe/Paris
config_dir	/config

Home Assistant Community Store

GitHub API	ok
GitHub Content	ok
GitHub Web	ok
GitHub API Calls Remaining	5000
Installed Version	1.33.0
Stage	running
Available Repositories	1306
Downloaded Repositories	20

Home Assistant Cloud

logged_in	true
subscription_expiration	3 janvier 2024 à 01:00
relayer_connected	true
relayer_region	eu-central-1
remote_enabled	true
remote_connected	true
alexa_enabled	true
google_enabled	true
remote_server	eu-central-1-2.ui.nabu.casa
certificate_status	ready
can_reach_cert_server	ok
can_reach_cloud_auth	ok
can_reach_cloud	ok

Home Assistant Supervisor

host_os	Home Assistant OS 10.5
update_channel	stable
supervisor_version	supervisor-2023.09.2
agent_version	1.5.1
docker_version	23.0.6
disk_total	117.4 GB
disk_used	7.4 GB
healthy	true
supported	true
board	ova
supervisor_api	ok
version_api	ok
installed_addons	File editor (5.6.0), Glances (0.19.3), Home Assistant Google Drive Backup (0.111.1), Mosquitto broker (6.3.1), Node-RED (14.5.0), Terminal & SSH (9.7.1), Zigbee2MQTT (1.33.0-1), Crowdsec (1.5.2-ha1), Crowdsec Firewall Bouncer (v0.0.26)

Dashboards

dashboards	1
resources	5
views	10
mode	storage

Recorder

oldest_recorder_run	24 septembre 2023 à 14:00
current_recorder_run	3 octobre 2023 à 14:47
estimated_db_size	359.24 MiB
database_engine	sqlite
database_version	3.41.2

Xiaomi Miot Auto

component_version	0.7.11
can_reach_server	ok
can_reach_spec	ok
logged_accounts	1
total_devices	1

Additional information

Thank you for help

[maddinhome]

same bug here on synology vm

[agners]

I can't get my RFXCOM to work,

Did it work on previous operating system versions? Does it work with other virtual machines (e.g. different Linux distribution)? If so, what distribution/version did you check?

@maddinhome do you use RFXCOM as well?

[Jezza34000]

Did it work on previous operating system versions?

I don't know i don't have it before

Does it work with other virtual machines (e.g. different Linux distribution)? If so, what distribution/version did you check?

Yes, currently it works on a VM on a Freebox Delta
(Linux servicesVM 5.15.0-84-generic #93-Ubuntu SMP Tue Sep 5 17:18:46 UTC 2023 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux)
And i use it throught a ser2net

[maddinhome]

@agners yes, I use an RFX433XL USB. Only for a few switches... but I use it.

It worked until version 9.2 of Homeassistant. The HAOS version at this time was 10.5. Now I have installed HAOS 11.0rc1.

VM from Synology...

I noticed that when I restart the RFX (plugging it in and out) only the red LED flashes. Otherwise a green one was always added. Maybe there is also a hardware defect. But the RFX is recognized by Homeassistant when it is cold started. Only in the device overview does it say “Error setting up”.

The logs aren't very informative either... hmmm

[Jezza34000]

Only in the device overview does it say “Error setting up”.
The logs aren't very informative either... hmmm

Same for me

[Sebazzz]

Perhaps related #2756, where my attached device in VM disappears when ha-core loads.

[maddinhome]

Here is an excerpt from my log file:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/threading.py", line 1038, in _bootstrap_inner
self.run()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/threading.py", line 975, in run
self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/RFXtrx/init.py", line 986, in _connect
self.transport.reset()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/RFXtrx/init.py", line 832, in reset
self.send(b'\x0D\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00')
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/RFXtrx/init.py", line 828, in send
self.serial.write(pkt)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

later:
2023-10-12 16:22:18.908 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.rfxtrx] Connection timeout: failed to receive response from RFXtrx device

hmmm

Maybe that will help narrow down the error.

[maddinhome]

Is there something new? Does anyone have a solution?

[Jezza34000]

Nope

[sm0keKings]

There was a HA OS update 11.1 released. It didn't appear to fix it. Did anyone find another solution?

[maddinhome]

Apparently there are too few of us and the problem is not being seen.

It's unfortunate... I'm already looking for an alternative

[sm0keKings]

I think there is a lot of us that are waiting for them to fix the OS issue. I will start to look for a fix to the OS.

[Jezza34000]

My workaround was to stop using RFXCOM, i use RFLINK with Arduino instead :-)

[WhiteDogBe]

Waiting on the same fix... I also notified the vendor about this thread, they might be able to debug this more easily.

[WhiteDogBe]

I have 2 updates:

• I'm using HAOS via ProxMox and tried the upgrade from 9.5 to 11.1... my RFXTRX433XL is still working. So it's not 'all' VM that are affected. Might depend on how exactly the device is passed through in the VM system you are using.

• The RFXCOM developer responded to me with a few remarks, but as I don't have the issue I can't help solve it. Feel free to reach out to him if you are on a path for troubleshooting.

I go this suggestion though:

We use a standard FTDI FT232 chip in the RFXtrx. We only changed the Manufacturer and Product description in the USB string descriptors.

You can change this to the FTDI setting if you like using FT_prog https://ftdichip.com/utilities/
Manufacturer: FTDI
Product description: FT232R USB UART

If you change this back to the FTDI settings you need the latest RFXmngr or else the RFXtrx is not detected.

The above is something you can try very easily imho if you are affected by this.
Other suggestion is to use ser2net.

[sm0keKings]

I have 2 updates:

• I'm using HAOS via ProxMox and tried the upgrade from 9.5 to 11.1... my RFXTRX433XL is still working. So it's not 'all' VM that are affected. Might depend on how exactly the device is passed through in the VM system you are using.
• The RFXCOM developer responded to me with a few remarks, but as I don't have the issue I can't help solve it. Feel free to reach out to him if you are on a path for troubleshooting.

I go this suggestion though:

We use a standard FTDI FT232 chip in the RFXtrx. We only changed the Manufacturer and Product description in the USB string descriptors.
You can change this to the FTDI setting if you like using FT_prog https://ftdichip.com/utilities/
Manufacturer: FTDI
Product description: FT232R USB UART
If you change this back to the FTDI settings you need the latest RFXmngr or else the RFXtrx is not detected.

The above is something you can try very easily imho if you are affected by this. Other suggestion is to use ser2net.

I am not using a VM. I have a native HAOS on a Intel x86 the issue appears to be the OS not specifically the VM config.

[TheOriginalMrWolf]

Hi @Jezza34000

I had a similar problem. Putting an unpowered USB2 hub between the RFX & Pi fixed the problem (had to try a few to find the 'golden' one).

Worked flawlessly for more than a year since. Don't ask me why....

[sm0keKings]

Removing the addon and reisntalling chosing the other USB connection method worked for me too!

[agners]

In the end, this is probably a device which is on the edge (or even violating) some USB specs. Depending on exact hardware configuration (USB host IP/type), and USB bus configuration (with/without hub(s)) things might just work, or just not work.

Home Assistant OS uses a rather vanilla upstream Linux kernel version 6.1 for the OS 10 and 11 series. So on the same hardware, with a operating system using the same kernel version, I'd expect the same issues in the end.

Possible that different kernel version lead to slightly different timing, but I don't think there is a general fix we can come up with from HAOS side 😢

[Jezza34000]

OK thank you all for possible "workaround" and @agners for explanation