Usb Connection Howto, Windows & Linux - OE specific Options

[lardman]

Another pinned topic :-)

Let's nail setting up USB connections between a Z and a PC (running WinXP or Linux), which is a basic thing which ought to be documented (and which comes up from time to time).

What we need is:
* Your Z (hardware, OZ version, kernel version)
* Your PC OS (including kernel version/service pack/etc.)
* Where you got the drivers from (if needed)
* What changes you made on the PC (if any, mainly for Linux)
* What changes you made on your Z (if any)

Cheers,


Si

P.S. I know there are already HowTos in the ZUG HowTos area, however these generally apply to Sharp ROMs (and although there may not be many differences, there are enough).

By all means, lift the info from there if it works, it'll go back in there once this is all sorted.

[7_feet_up]

Debian unstable Zaurus USB-network how-to:
Install the latest stock kernel for your machine class e.g.:

CODE

user@desktop:~# sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.14-2-686

Reboot.
Plug in the zaurus and see if it was recognized by your computer. By issueing the command 'tail /var/log/messages' you will see the last few lines of your system log. You should see that an usb device was connected, the 'zaurus' module was loaded and that your zaurus was recognized:

CODE

user@desktop:~# tail /var/log/messages
Dec 17 17:35:58 localhost kernel: usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 10
Dec 17 17:35:58 localhost kernel: usb0: register 'zaurus' at usb-0000:00:10.0-2, pseudo-MDLM (BLAN) device, 52:8c:8b:4f:e4:90

Find that the module was loaded:

CODE

user@desktop:~# lsmod | grep zaurus
usbnet                 17064  2 zaurus,cdc_ether

You'll probably have one or two more lines containing the word 'zaurus', but you definitely should have this line here. If not, something went wrong with loading the module.
An 'ifconfig -a' should give you a usb0 network interface, which isn't configured yet. There may be more network interfaces depending on your system, but usb0 should definitely be there.

CODE

user@desktop:~# ifconfig -a
usb0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 52:8C:8B:4F:E4:90
         BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
         RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
         TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
         RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Now we'll configure the network interface of the zaurus and your linux computer. We'll give your computer and your zaurus a static IP.
First your zaurus:

Start 'Network' in your Settings dir. Click on the interface 'usbd0' and click configure.

Fill in the Following:

(X) Automatically bring up
( ) DHCP

Static Ip Configuration
IP Address 192.168.129.201
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0

Leave the rest empty for now.

On your linux computer type the following:

CODE

sudo ifconfig usb0 192.168.129.200 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

This should configure your USB network interface and bring it up. Now we'll try if we can reach the zaurus. We'll do this by pinging it's IP address (the command should be stopped by typing Ctrl-c or it will go on forever):

CODE

user@desktop:~# ping 192.168.129.201
PING 192.168.129.201 (192.168.129.201) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.108 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.094 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.090 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.089 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.129.201: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=0.093 ms

--- 192.168.129.201 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 3998ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.089/0.094/0.108/0.014 ms

Now we will make your configuration permanent. You don't want to type 'ifconfig usb0 192.168.129.200 netmask 255.255.255.0 up' to use your zaurus all the time, and you'll probably just want to stick it in to be able to use it. There are (at least) two ways to accomplish this task:
1. by adding an entry for the usb interface in the file /etc/network/interfaces, or
2. by writing a new udev rule that configures the usb interface

1. The first option is the easiest and, in my opinion, the cleanest. As root, add the following lines to the file /etc/network/interfaces:

CODE

allow-hotplug usb0
mapping hotplug
       script grep
       map usb0

iface usb0 inet static
address 192.168.129.200
netmask 255.255.255.0
pointopoint 192.168.129.201

2. The second option also works, but should be considered a hack. So you'd better skip this one. I will leave it in this post for historical purposes though, since untill I found out about the option printed above this was the only way I could bring up the usb interface automatically. It requires writing a new udev rule that configures the usb interface based on 2 keys: the kernel device name (e.g. usb0) and the driver used, that is 'zaurus'. You actually could omit this key, but then this rule would interfere with other devices with a usb* device name (probably usb networking devices), if you owned such a device. (It appeared that the hardware address used in a previous version of this post changes every other time you reboot your machine. Since the address isn't permanent, it isn't suitable as a key.)

So, as root, create the file /etc/udev/zaurus.rules and add the following line:

CODE

KERNEL=="usb[0-9]*", DRIVER="zaurus", NAME="%k", SYMLINK="zaurus", RUN+="/sbin/ifconfig %k 192.168.129.200 netmask 255.255.255.0 up"

and symlink it to the directory /etc/udev/rules.d:

CODE

$ cd /etc/udev/rules.d
user@desktop:~# sudo ln -s ../zaurus.rules 10_zaurus.rules

Now restart the udev daemon:

CODE

user@desktop:~# sudo /etc/init.d/udev restart

This will ensure that every time your zaurus hits the cradle the network connection will be started.

If your connection to the zaurus often hangs for no apparent reason, consider shrinking the MTU on the zaurus:

CODE

root@zaurus:~# ifconfig usb0 mtu 1000

To make the change permanent, even after rebooting, add the line "mtu 1000" to the section of the usbd0 network interface in the /etc/network/interfaces file.

Folkert van der Beek.


*edit: modified the udev rule, so it won't interfere with other usb networking devices.
*edit2: modified the udev rule to identify the zaurus based on the driver in stead of the hardware address, since the latter apparently changes after every reboot.
*edit3: added the option to modify /etc/network/interfaces, instead of writing an udev rule.
*edit4: added the option to shrink the MTU to prevent freezing connections.

[Storm]

Debian unstable Zaurus USB-network how-to:
Install the latest stock kernel for your machine class e.g.:

CODE

$ sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.14-2-686

Excellent howto, 7_feet_up. I have questions, since it does not seem to work for me. I'm running Debian stable on an HP laptop, with kernel 2.6.15 (I just upgraded from 2.6.12, where the problem existed as well). Everything works manually, but although I followed all of the steps to get it to come up automagically, it doesn't.

lsmod shows:

CODE

[riogrande ~]# lsmod | grep zaurus
zaurus                  4096  0
cdc_ether               4352  1 zaurus
usbnet                 11528  2 zaurus,cdc_ether

I also created /etc/udev/zaurus.rules and symlinked it to /etc/udev/rules.d/, and added usb0 to /etc/network/interfaces:

CODE

auto usb0
iface usb0 inet static
       address 192.168.129.1
       pointopoint 192.168.129.1
       netmask 255.255.255.255
       pre-up modprobe zaurus
       post-down rmmod zaurus

When I put the Zaurus in the dock, I get:

CODE

Jan 30 12:59:35 localhost kernel: usb 4-5.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 10
Jan 30 12:59:35 localhost kernel: usb0: register 'zaurus' at usb-0000:00:1d.7-5.4, Sharp Zaurus SL-5x00, 0a:95:46:a6:00:af

At this point, I can bring up usb0 and assign it an address, but it is by no means automatic.

One thing I noticed. The beginning of your /etc/udev/zaurus starts with KERNEL=="usb[0-9]*". Does this look for /dev/usb[0-9]? Because on my system, these devices do not appear. Is this a normal occurrence?

Once I get this up and working, I would like to append something like the following to bring up out-to-the-internet connectivity for the zaurus:

CODE

#!/bin/sh
# Determine external interface.
EXTIF="`/bin/netstat -rn | grep ^0.0.0.0 | awk '{ print $8}'`"
  echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
  iptables -t filter -F FORWARD
  iptables -t filter -P FORWARD DROP
  iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -s 192.168.129.0/24 -j ACCEPT
  iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -d 192.168.129.0/24 -j ACCEPT
  iptables -t nat -F PREROUTING
  iptables -t nat -P PREROUTING ACCEPT
  iptables -t nat -F POSTROUTING
  iptables -t nat -P POSTROUTING ACCEPT
  iptables -t nat -F OUTPUT
  iptables -t nat -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
  iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.129.0/24 -o $EXTIF -j MASQUERADE

But one step at a time...

--Storm