USB host successes

Joel Newkirk freerunner at newkirk.us
Tue Aug 26 02:01:00 CEST 2008


I've been playing around with USB host mode for a couple weeks now, and
wanted to itemize my results.  (previously touched on some of this in one
of the USB keyboard threads and on my blog)  Any questions just ask, but I
mostly envision this as a thread where we can post results of various USB
hostmode tests. (to hopefully make their way onto the wiki after some
consolidation, cross-checking, and editing)


The needed cable arrived just before I flashed to 2008.08 - 2007 didn't
acknowledge keyboard, and ethernet wasn't in my hands then, other results
here apply to both 2008.08 (currently Raster's image upgraded via Zecke-dev
feeds) and 2007.02 versions.


2gb thumbdrive - automounts, reads & writes fine.  ('Plain' Sony
thumbdrive, no encryption or compression, VFAT)

keyboards - most work flawlessly when plugged in (3 out of 4 tested),
including automatically disabling software keyboard.  (Thanks Raster!!) 
The one tested that did not work is a Dell multimedia keyboard with 2-port
USB hub and volume knob as a second USB device - it also states that it
draws 1.5A, so I was unsurprised when it didn't power up.

Canon S410 Elph digital camera - (self-powered) lsusb shows the device, no
drivers installed.  (I'd like to be able to transfer pix from the camera to
the Freerunner)

Epson printer - (self powered) device is visible in lsusb, no driver
support installed/configured on my Freerunner yet...

Logitech webcams (Quickcam Communicate STX and Quickcam Chat [IIRC]) -
device visible in lsusb, but gspca and usb-video kernel modules are
unavailable ATM.

Netgear wifi adapter - powers device, lsusb shows it, no support enabled in
kernel AFAIK. Not really necessary on GTA02, though there are some
scenarios to utilize dual wifi, especially if at least one supports Wifi
Master mode. (iwconfig refuses on built-in wifi so presumably driver
doesn't support, at least - I'd love to get madwifi going, but suspect the
SDIO interface leaves us unsupported there since they won't even support
USB wifi devices with the same chipset as a supported PCI wifi card)

Ethernet 10/100 adapter - arrived today, works perfectly.  Plugged into
ethernet then USB, and Freerunner powers device, establishes ethernet link
on eth1, and picks up IPs and routing.  Perfect, beautiful, and painfree. 
Pinging Google less than 7 seconds after plugging in.


That last one, ethernet, just made my Freerunner an indispensable network
diagnostic tool. :)  (now I just need tshark/wireshark, ettercap, handy
things like that)  I'm likely going to order a second, see if there's any
way I can position the Freerunner mid-cable with the two ethernets bridged,
and sniff traffic. ;)  (obviously would be limited by USB 1.1 bandwidth but
probably still useful - the question is really whether the Freerunner can
power a hub and two adapters)

j






More information about the community mailing list