Comment 34 for bug 433438

@Manoj, the supposed "workaround" (which has been working around for 2-3 years now) was:
modprobe -r ehci_hcd
(Which resulted in terrible USB 1.1 speeds, but at least allowed people to read their data.)

I could be wrong, but I believe this command (above) gives an error in Lucid: module not found. I was under the impression that this error was due to the (relatively) recent decision to integrate "ehci_hcd" in the kernel itself -- ie, there's no *external*/modular/dkms file to disable or remove at runtime.

I'm currently running a Dell Latitude E6500, AMD64 Lucid 10.04* and I have only just started seeing this error (when reading from two known-good external USB hard disks) *after* the upgrade from Karmic --> Lucid. (Not saying that the upgrade is responsible; just trying to provide a timeline just-in-case.) Suffice it to say, this problem is NOT going away, and (if bug-reports are any measure) it's affecting a not-at-all-insignificant number of users.

Would love a fix, naturally -- but in the meantime, is there a practical (quick) way to perform the "modprobe -r ehci_hcd trick" (or something similar) on as a workaround with modern/Lucid kernels?

*2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:09:38 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux (Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 LTS)