Before installing OpenSolaris on my file server while I was running Linux I noticed weird behaviour with the on board USB 2.0 controller of my ASUS A7V333. For some reason I was only getting USB 1.1 transfer speeds with an external USB hard drive. I didn't think much of it at the time however after trying a ZFS send - receive I was getting awful performance on OpenSolaris too. A check of the log files found this:
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): Due to recently discovered incompatibilities
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): with this USB controller, USB2.x transfer
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): support has been disabled. This device will
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): continue to function as a USB1.x controller.
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): If you are interested in enabling USB2.x
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): support please, refer to the ehci(7D) man page.
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): Please also refer to www.sun.com/io for
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): Solaris Ready products and to
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl for additional
Jul 16 21:34:26 argon usba: ... (ehci0): compatible USB products.
The fact I was experiencing trouble with this controller in Linux as well doesn't give me a good feeling about using this workaround. I think I will look around tomorrow for a USB PCI card.