Android Usb Diagnostics

Android USB Diagnostics

Use this skill when diagnosing physical Android device connection speeds, USB 2 vs USB 3 negotiation issues, trace capture/replay transfer performance, or raw USB / udev permissions.

Quick Connection Check

Build and run the USB diagnostic tool:

make -C build usbconnection
./build/usbconnection

Interpreting Diagnostics

1. Negotiated Speed vs. Host Port:

• If negotiated speed is 480 Mbps (USB 2.0) but the host port supports 5000+ Mbps (USB 3):
  • The device is bottlenecked by the USB cable (e.g., standard phone in-box charging cable) or an intermediate USB 2.0 hub.
  • Swap to a certified USB 3.0+ / USB-C SuperSpeed cable.

2. Device Hardware Capability:
   • Modern Pixels (Pixel 8a, 9, 9a) support USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) and DisplayPort Alt Mode (dwc3 controller in adb shell dumpsys usb).
3. Host udev Rules:
   • Check if the tool reports CONFIGURED (Non-root user has Read/Write access).
   • On Debian/Ubuntu systems, distribution rules are installed in /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules (from package android-udev-rules).
   • If missing, create /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules with:
     • SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666", TAG+="uaccess"
     • and reload with sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger.

High-Throughput Data Path (ADB vs Raw USB)

• ADB Forwarding: High CPU overhead due to double userspace proxying across loopback. Practical throughput caps at ~35-40 MB/s (USB 2) or ~80-140 MB/s (USB 3).
• Raw USB / AOA Composite Mode: Android supports composite mode VID 0x18D1, PID 0x2D01 (Interface 0 = Raw Bulk Stream, Interface 1 = ADB). This enables high throughput (>350 MB/s) while keeping ADB active for control commands.

Measuring Device Data Transfer Performance

To verify real-world transfer throughput and memory readback performance from an Android device, use tests/lava_cli_save_buffer_test.py or tests/lava_cli_save_buffer_perf.py.

1. Quick Automated Save Buffer Test

Run the end-to-end device test against a connected Android device:

python3 tests/lava_cli_save_buffer_test.py \
  --serial <SERIAL> \
  --apk android/replay/build/outputs/apk/debug/replay-debug.apk \
  --verbose

This launches the replay service via ADB, waits for the Vulkan checkpoint, saves both mapped and device-local buffers, verifies content patterns, and prints throughput metrics.

2. Multi-Iteration Performance Benchmarks

To run repeated measurements across sizes and receive modes:

# 1. Start replay service on Android
python3 scripts/lava-replay-android.py run \
  --serial <SERIAL> \
  --service \
  --host-port 12345 --device-port 12345 \
  --apk android/replay/build/outputs/apk/debug/replay-debug.apk \
  <trace_file.api>

# 2. Benchmark throughput against the forwarded port
python3 tests/lava_cli_save_buffer_perf.py \
  --external 127.0.0.1:12345 \
  --sizes 16M,64M \
  --csv android-perf.csv

3. Expected Throughput Baselines (Pixel 9a / Mali-G715 on USB 3 SuperSpeed)

• GPU Staging Readback: ~1.2 – 2.4 GB/s (Vulkan staging copy on device)
• Device TCP Socket Send: ~300 – 450 MiB/s (device network socket egress)
• End-to-End ADB Throughput (USB 3): ~140 – 160 MiB/s for buffers $\ge$ 16 MB
• End-to-End ADB Throughput (USB 2): ~35 – 40 MiB/s (bottlenecked by 480 Mbps link)