3.6. Objective 7: Configure USB DevicesUniversal Serial Bus (USB) is a type of interface used to connect various types of peripherals, ranging from keyboards and mice, to hard drives, scanners, digital cameras, and printers. The USB Objective covers the general architecture of USB, USB modules, and configuring USB devices . 3.6.1. USB TopologyUSB devices are attached to a host in a tree through some number of hub devices. The lsusb command can be used to see how devices are physically attached to a Linux system. # lsusb -t Bus# 4 '-Dev# 1 Vendor 0x0000 Product 0x0000 Bus# 3 '-Dev# 1 Vendor 0x0000 Product 0x0000 |-Dev# 2 Vendor 0x046d Product 0xc501 '-Dev# 3 Vendor 0x0781 Product 0x0002 Bus# 2 '-Dev# 1 Vendor 0x0000 Product 0x0000 |-Dev# 2 Vendor 0x0451 Product 0x2036 | |-Dev# 5 Vendor 0x04b8 Product 0x0005 | '-Dev# 6 Vendor 0x04b8 Product 0x0602 '-Dev# 3 Vendor 0x0451 Product 0x2046 '-Dev# 4 Vendor 0x056a Product 0x0011 Bus# 1 '-Dev# 1 Vendor 0x0000 Product 0x0000 3.6.2. USB ControllersThere are three types of USB host controllers :
OHCI and UHCI controllers are both USB 1.1 controllers, which are capable of a maximum of 12 Mbps. EHCI controllers are USB 2.0 controllers, which are capable of a theoretical maximum of 480 Mbps. To get greater than USB 1.1 speeds, you must have a USB 2.0 controller, as well as USB 2.0 devices, hubs, and cables. A USB 2.0 device attached to a USB 1.1 hub will only be able to run at USB 1.1 speeds. 3.6.3. USB DevicesThere are several classes of USB devices , including the following:
3.6.4. USB DriversUSB support was added to the Linux kernel in the 2.3.x development kernel series, then back-ported to 2.2.x, minus support for USB mass storage devices (due to SCSI changes in 2.3.x). The back-port was included in the 2.2.18 kernel release. Tip: There is no kernel USB support in 2.0.x and earlier. The Linux kernel USB drivers fall into three categories:
The Linux drivers implement USB support in layers. At the bottom is usbcore.o, which provides all of the generic USB support for the higher-level drivers as well as USB hub support. The host controller drivers load in the middle of the stack. On top are the device and class drivers and any modules they require. The following is an example of what you might see in /proc/modules (or from the output of lsmod) on a system with several USB devices: Module Size Used by usb-storage 68628 0 scsi_mod 106168 2 [usb-storage] evdev 5696 0 (unused) printer 8832 0 wacom 7896 0 (unused) keybdev 2912 0 (unused) mousedev 5428 1 hid 21700 0 (unused) input 5824 0 [evdev wacom keybdev mousedev hid] ehci-hcd 19432 0 (unused) usb-uhci 25964 0 (unused) usbcore 77760 1 [usb-storage printer wacom hid ehci-hcd \ usb-uhci] 3.6.5. USB HotplugModularized USB drivers are loaded by the generic /sbin/hotplug support in the kernel, which is also used for other hotplug devices such as CardBus cards. Tip: While not covered on the LPI exams, the Linux IEEE 1394 (also known as FireWire or i.Link) drivers have a similar design. If you understand how to set up USB devices, setting up IEEE 1394 devices should be easy. |