Agree. Some distros survive leader loss but it is an issue.
I ran Solus for a couple of years. It is a desktop-only distro… ie you can not configure it for a server.
Budgie is a really nice DE, but it also has KDE.
Their package manager gui is the best I have seen
I left it because it is systemd… you may have gathered I like non-systemd init systems…
Then it is another problem. Which I have learned so far that Systemd has issues. So, it is better to go for a non-systemd distro. But then, the choice becomes much more narrower. I am really confused. Now, just for a thought, say my motherboard has issue with USB 2 ports. But then, how Fedora is bypassing it?! They basically all Linux. The pure core is almost same because kernel is same. Then with the same version of the kernel, one has no issue and another has issue. Why so?! You, Laszlo, Dan have huge experience on Linux. So, what are your opinions?
We need to know whether you really have a hardware issue.
Distros do differ in
Someone can probably add to this list.
The point is it is very difficult to guess what may be the cause in your case.
I have posted the issue is Debian forum. Let’s see what they say.
Oh, for the record, Solus live ISO also could not recognise the USB 2 ports. Here is a picture:
On the right side of the image, you can see that no USB drive is listed except the Ventoy USB drive which is connected to a USB 3 port and in the USB 2 port, my WiFi dongle is connected but it is not showing, not in the system tray, not through the command.
I’d narrow down USB not working or the device plugged in. From your picture I see quite a few root hubs listed, both USB2 snd USB3, even USB1.1
So I’d say, USB works. What doesn’t show up I’d check with watching dmesg -w, and replug the defunct device, maybe into different ports.
I’m very sorry that I can’t say any more clever advice, I’m completely baffled by your hardware setup. 
But, lsusb can see all the ports.
They are detected, but they are not being driven?
Maybe you need some special kernel module.
Could you compare lsmod in fedora and in debian?.. does fedora have anything debian does not have?
Wifi not working is another problem on its own. Lots of distros dont bring wifi up when installed .
How many devices do you have plugged into usb ports? Can we remove all unnecessary devices. We need to simplify the issue
When you say " usb not working" what is your test? You cant use ‘devices plugged into usb not working’ as a test, you need to look at lsusb.
If lsusb detects the usb ports, they are supported by linux… the problem of things plugged in not working lies elsewhere…
My sentiments too. @Skywalker71 has a strange issue here.
How can I know which special kernel modules are needed?!
I ran the `lsmod’ command in both the OS and they gave a very long list. See the screenshots below:
Fedora lsmod:
Debian lsmod:
Debian 12 lsusb:
These are for your references. I will compare them too. Let’s see what differences they have.
Update: There are many modules, in both the OS. While comparing the modules of these two OS, the discrepancies I have found regarding USB are as follows:
In Debian:
In Fedora:
From the above images, I can see that there are more USB related instances in Debian than in Fedora. I don’t know if these differences are really significant or not. You people have more knowledge than me. So, I am leaving it in your capable hands.
I cant see anything outstanding
Is Debian missing uinput? Not sure if it matters
I think this approach is a dead end.
We want to know why all the usb ports are detected , but some devices plugged into 2.0 ports do not work?
If you put a flash drive into one of these supposedly not working usb2 ports and do
lsblk
does it list the flash drive?
You missed SUSE / OpenSUSE and Slackware…
Just because SUSE uses RPM pkg format - that doesn’t mean it’s RedHat/Fedora derived…
Slackware’s the oldest extant distro… the grandaddy 
- practically a living fossil - there were “distros” before Slackware - but they’re all extinct…
Yes my miss.
Thing I find strange about OpenSUSE is they tell you more about the company than the software. It is a bit real estate agents advertising pictures of themselves instead of properties.
Does SUSE support the softwares I need to work with?
No. USB 2/1.1 drive also doesn’t show in list.
The flash drive needs to have a filesystem on it. lsblk will not see an empty drive.
Can you check that.?
It is a mature old distro with a history, I’d be surprised if it would miss Apache/NGinx/ MariaDB/PostgreSQL/PHP/etc. as well as GIMP, Libreoffice…
It has 2 releases: the “Tumbleweed”, which is a rolling-release distro with all the newest and bleeding edge stuff, and the “Leap”, which is a point-release with more mature stable stuff (like Debian).
If something plugged in, and not working:
the very first thing to check dmesg.
Not the whole list, but the relevant lines.
To do this:
-unplug the device
-start sudo dmesg -w
-wait a bit until it settles
-plug in the device
-wait a bit until it settles
-stop dmesg -w.
The lines appeared after the couple seconds the device is plugged, those contain relevant messages.
I created a Debian 12 live-usb with Rufus formatting it with FAT32 filesystem. So, it has a filesystem. When I booted the PC with the live-usb connected to a USB 2 port, see what happened:
Debian menu showed:
Then I selected the 1st option and it showed this:
Then it showed a screen with Debian logo and a pulsating background and sits there. 15 mins later I soft rebooted the PC.
And if you add iommu=off, but otherwise keep everything the very same, what happens?
Regarding SUSE…
I like to think I kind of keep up with and know much of the history of Linux, but I recently learned on a podcast that SUSE was the first fork of Slackware.
Here is more info:
Fedora can drive that usb2 port
The bios can drive that usb port… it boots to the first screen
Debian can not drive that usb2 port … boot fails. lsblk fails
Debian can detect that usb2 port … lsusb sees it
There is nothing fatally wrong with the hardware, it may , as you say , have a marginal problem.
The difference between detecting the port and driving it is
That takes us back to
I dont know what to guess next. Follow Laszlo’s question about boot with iommu=off
There are lots of iommu parameters. I once had to use intel_iommu=off.
I will get you the full list.
