Compatibility of USB 3.0 cards and adapters

I looked some USB 3.0 cards to desktop and adapters to laptops, but there were only compatibility to Windows mentioned and stated that does not work wit MACs. Anything of Linux. Is there drivers ready or installable to Linux to use some USB 3.0 extensions?

Following text taken from internet:

"If you have a desktop system you will need a PCI Express, or PCIe card and your computer must have a free PCI Express slot to install it. When you power it up again the computer should detect the new card and install the drivers automatically, or it will ask you for a disc containing the necessary drivers. Then you’re ready to USB 3.0 transfer rates.

If you have a notebook computer, it must have an ExpressCard slot. ExpressCard is a high-bandwidth expansion slot commonly found on notebook computers in the last five years. If you have an older notebook with a PC Card (also called PCMCIA) or Cardbus slot, you can’t use the latest ExpressCard peripherals. There are two form factors for ExpressCard slots and peripherals. ExpressCard/34 slots and peripherals are 34mm wide, ExpressCard/54 slots and peripherals are 54mm wide. A 34mm slot will only accept 34mm cards, A 54mm slot accepts 34mm and 54mm cards. Regardless, all of the ExpressCard USB 3.0 adapters are at least 34mm wide, so if your notebook has any ExpressCard slot you can plug in one of these adapters."

To be safe, you should insert the ExpressCard adapter into the computer while it’s off. After you turn on your computer, it should detect the adapter and install the drivers automatically, or it asks you for a disc containing the necessary drivers".

I found the following on the internet:

USB 3.0 support is available for Linux guests running kernel version 2.6.35 or later (Ubuntu 10.10) through a new virtual xHCI USB controller. To enable this feature, add the following line to the .vmx file: usb_xhci.present = “true”. Do not enable this feature for Windows guests. Because Windows does not currently have a generic xHCI driver, this feature will not work in Windows.

I believe that Linux was the first OS to support USB 3.0 and I also believe that Ubuntu ships their OS with USB 3.0 as standard which means that Zorin should also have the feature as Zorin is built on Ubuntu.

Have you tried to plug the drive in (as it should be plug and play)?

PS: The card should be a PCI-E slot and not a PCI or an onboard card as these are not regonised in Ubuntu. Also there should be no other drivers to install once you have the card installed. I do believe that Linux have the drivers built into the kernel and Kernel V2.6.31 (released in September 2009) has all the drivers for USB 3.0

Hope that helps a little and let us know if it works.

Thanks for the info. I have not those cads or adapters yet, but I wanted to know whether it is at all supported in Linux before I try to install one. It may take some time before I can say anything of the success or failure in this issue. I have to look where I can find these things and with reasonable price. It is still open whether there is adapters that fit to my laptop due to it is an older HP530 and there is a 54 mm PCMCIA slot where the ExpressCards can not be used according to the info from that clip from net. I find already an extension adapter for 4 USB 2,0 ports to fit there but not an adapter for USB 3.0. It is much easier to find one to my desktop I suppose.