Device::USB::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions for Device::USB |
Device::USB::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions for Device::USB
perldoc Device::USB::FAQ
This is an attempt to answer some of the frequently asked questions about the Device::USB module
Device:USB
supports any platform that libusb
supports. This list
currently includes Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Darwin, and MacOS X.
There is a port of the libusb
library to the Windows environment called
LibUsb-Win32
. Because I don't have a development environment for testing
this library, Device::USB
does not yet support this library.
By default, access to the USB devices on a Unix-based system appear to be
limited to the root account. This usually causes access to most of the
libusb
features to fail with a permission error.
Using the Device::USB
module as root avoids this feature, but is not
very satisfying from a security standpoint. (See the next question for
more options.)
Some of the attributes of USB devices are available to non-root users, but
accessing many of the more interesting features require special privileges.
According to the libusb source, the open()
function requires either device
nodes to be present or the usbfs file system to be mounted in specific
locations. Those places in order are:
Look in both locations on your system for which of these two methods your libusb will use.
No matter which method your system uses, you will probably want to create a separate group to control access. Run this command to add a system group:
addgroup --system usb
or
groupadd --system usb
You can then add users to that group to allow access to your usb devices.
TODO
If you use Debian/Ubuntu, look in the /etc/udev/permissions.rules file. If you want to allow global access to all usb devices, make this change:
Change this: SUBSYSTEM==``usb_device'', MODE=``0664''
To this: SUBSYSTEM==``usb_device'', MODE=``0664'', GROUP=``usb''
After you reboot, all usb devices will inherit the mode and group specified.
If you want to only change permissions for certain devices, you can add this on one line and adjust the product and vendor IDs:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GROUP="usb", \ SYSFS{idVendor}=="1234", SYSFS{idProduct}=="1234"
The usbfs defaults to root as the user and group. This can be changed in the /etc/fstab by adding the following on one line:
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto,\ listuid=0,listgid=118,listmode=0664,\ busuid=0,busgid=118,busmode=0775,\ devuid=0,devgid=118,devmode=0664\ 0 0
The value 118
in the above should be replaced with the group id of
your usb group (created above). The list* values are to allow listing
devices, the bus* is to control access to the bus directories and the
dev* values control access to the device files. This approach does not
allow the kind of granular permission that the udev approach gives, so
it is all or nothing unless permissions are changed programmatically.
If your /etc/fstab file already has a line for /proc/bus/usb, add the options above to the line that is already there rather than adding the new line. For example, you would change
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
to
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto,\ listuid=0,listgid=118,listmode=0664,\ busuid=0,busgid=118,busmode=0775,\ devuid=0,devgid=118,devmode=0664\ 0 0
Once again, this needs to be all on one line with the \
characters
removed.
Device::USB and the libusb
library site at
http://libusb.sourceforge.net/.
G. Wade Johnson (wade at anomaly dot org) Paul Archer (paul at paularcher dot org)
Houston Perl Mongers Group
Thanks go to various users who submitted questions and answers for the list. In particular, Anthony L. Awtrey who contributed the first FAQ answer.
Copyright 2006 Houston Perl Mongers
This document is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
Device::USB::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions for Device::USB |