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.

[NickNak]

Using an ethernet bridge to plug your Zaurus into your network seems to me preferable to routing a two-node subnet between your PC and the Z and then using NAT to give the Z access to your network/the internet. Details of how to do it are at the usbnet website. On Gentoo, this is particularly easy:

1. Create symlinks to /etc/init.d/net.lo called /etc/init.d/net.usb0 and /etc/init.d/net.br0
2. Put the following in /etc/conf.d/net:

CODE

bridge_br0="eth0"
# You need to configure eth0 and usb0 as null so that dhcp is not used,
# we don't want IP addresses etc for these interfaces.
config_eth0=( "null" )
config_usb0=( "null" )
# Could use config_br0=( "dhcp" )
config_br0=( "192.168.2.30" )
depend_br0() {
   need net.eth0
}
gateway="br0/192.168.2.1"
# when hotplug configures usb0, add it to the bridge.
postup() {
   local iface=${1}
   if [[ ${iface} == usb0 ]]; then
       brctl addif br0 ${iface}
   fi
}

Obviously tailor the IP addresses to suit.

3. Configure the TCP/IP connecton on the Zaurus to make it part of the same subnet as your PC, e.g.
IP Address = 192.168.2.50
Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.2.1
First and Second DNS the same as your PC.

4. Test the configuration:

CODE

/etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop
/etc/init.d/net.br0 start

then plug in and switch on the PDA. Check that your PC and PDA have network access

5. Make the new configuration permanent:

CODE

rc-update del net.eth0
rc-update add net.br0 default

[Headrush]

Using an ethernet bridge to plug your Zaurus into your network seems to me preferable to routing a two-node subnet between your PC and the Z and then using NAT to give the Z access to your network/the internet. Details of how to do it are at the usbnet website. On Gentoo, this is particularly easy:

1. Create symlinks to /etc/init.d/net.lo called /etc/init.d/net.usb0 and /etc/init.d/net.br0
2. Put the following in /etc/conf.d/net:

CODE

bridge_br0="eth0"
# You need to configure eth0 and usb0 as null so that dhcp is not used,
# we don't want IP addresses etc for these interfaces.
config_eth0=( "null" )
config_usb0=( "null" )
# Could use config_br0=( "dhcp" )
config_br0=( "192.168.2.30" )
depend_br0() {
   need net.eth0
}
gateway="br0/192.168.2.1"
# when hotplug configures usb0, add it to the bridge.
postup() {
   local iface=${1}
   if [[ ${iface} == usb0 ]]; then
       brctl addif br0 ${iface}
   fi
}

Obviously tailor the IP addresses to suit.

3. Configure the TCP/IP connecton on the Zaurus to make it part of the same subnet as your PC, e.g.
IP Address = 192.168.2.50
Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.2.1
First and Second DNS the same as your PC.

4. Test the configuration:

CODE

/etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop
/etc/init.d/net.br0 start

then plug in and switch on the PDA.  Check that your PC and PDA have network access

5. Make the new configuration permanent:

CODE

rc-update del net.eth0
rc-update add net.br0 default

NickNak, great guide.

I do have a question though: how do eth0 and usb0 get their IP address.
I can manually create the bridge and add the 2 interfaces (eth0 and usb0) to the bridge, but then I have to use ifconfig to give each an IP address.

Is there a way to do this automatically and is it still possible if eth0 uses DHCP to receive it's IP address?