Diego Zuccato wrote: > Talking on a forum, an idea appeared: a driver to "export" an USB device > on a LAN. > A scenario could be a non-Linux-friendly printer that have to be placed > physically near the Linux server, but must be accessible from a > "distant" windoze machine. > > IIUC, the "server" part is the simpler: a daemon that acquires access to > the USB device and listens for network connections. IMO doable in > userspace w/o too many troubles. > > The hard part is the client. If it uses libusb or any other library, > that library could be modified to handle network access. But if it's > closed source (like many windoze drivers) then the only way I could > think is creating a "virtual hub" driver. This way no library should be > modified, allowing greater flexibility. > > Does some1 know of something similar already done or simpler methods?
This exists, for Linux at least, thanks to Takahiro Hirofuchi: http://sourceforge.net/projects/usbip/ (There was more material at http://usbip.naist.jp/, but that is now unavailable because Takahiro has graduated; hopefully it will eventually be replicated at the sourceforge site.) I ported it to the ARM-based NSLU2 which makes a great platform for the peripheral-server end. There were some structure packing/alignment issues but basically it just worked. IIRC Takahiro's code is in the -mm linux tree, but I don't know what progress it is making towards mainline. Personally, I would be very pleased to see this code in mainline Linux. Takahiro is looking for developers to take this forward. If you think you could help, please volunteer! Regards, Phil. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Linux-usb-users@lists.sourceforge.net To unsubscribe, use the last form field at: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-usb-users
