Automation
(Last updated: Monday September 10, 2007)
Linux USB Detach
I have a few USB devices which, when plugged in, immediately use the USBHID that's built into the Linux kernel. While that's all well and good for those who want to write programs using libusb and libhid it's not OK when I want to use select to wait for input froma device (one of these days I really need to learn some new programming skills ;-). I really prefer to use a device driver and make the devices looks like a serial port (I'm working on some tty drivers for the drivers I support right now). One of the problems with this is that you need to either blacklist the USB device or remove the HID and supporting modules from the Linux kernel. This usually means you need to recompile the kernel (not for the faint of heart).
Well Bob Pwwer comes to the rescue with his detach program. Bob's original code is included with his iLinks program (for Insteon and Linux). It was meant to detach the Insteon USB PLC from the usbhid driver (see below). This was fine for iLinks but on my home setup I needed to detach quite a few different things including having two Insteon USB PLCs attached.
To use detach simply type detach <Vendor_ID> <Product_ID>. To remove the usbhid attached to my Insteon USB PLC I first cat'd the usb devices file and got the ID for the device I'm interested in. Remember it will (currently) only detach the first device it finds.
# detach 10bf 4
You must be root to perform this command. To get the ID you'll need to find the device in /proc/bus/usb/devices.
$ cat /proc/bus/usb/devices T: Bus=04 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=480 MxCh= 6 B: Alloc= 0/800 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0 D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1 P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06 S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.18-1.2798a_FC6 ehci_hcd S: Product=EHCI Host Controller S: SerialNumber=0000:00:10.4 C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 0mA I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=256ms T: Bus=03 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=12 MxCh= 2 B: Alloc= 0/900 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0 D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1 P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06 S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.18-1.2798a_FC6 uhci_hcd S: Product=UHCI Host Controller S: SerialNumber=0000:00:10.2 C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 0mA I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=255ms T: Bus=02 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=12 MxCh= 2 B: Alloc= 0/900 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0 D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1 P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06 S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.18-1.2798a_FC6 uhci_hcd S: Product=UHCI Host Controller S: SerialNumber=0000:00:10.1 C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 0mA I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=255ms T: Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=1.5 MxCh= 0 D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1 P: Vendor=10bf ProdID=0004 Rev= 4.00 S: Manufacturer=SmartHome S: Product=SmartHome PowerLinc USB E C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=500mA I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=01 Prot=00 Driver=usbhid E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=10ms E: Ad=01(O) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=10ms T: Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=12 MxCh= 2 B: Alloc= 0/900 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0 D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1 P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06 S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.18-1.2798a_FC6 uhci_hcd S: Product=UHCI Host Controller S: SerialNumber=0000:00:10.0 C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 0mA I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=255ms T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#= 3 Spd=1.5 MxCh= 0 D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1 P: Vendor=10bf ProdID=0004 Rev= 4.00 S: Manufacturer=SmartHome S: Product=SmartHome PowerLinc USB E C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=500mA I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=01 Prot=00 Driver=usbhid E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=10ms E: Ad=01(O) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=10ms T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#= 4 Spd=1.5 MxCh= 0 D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1 P: Vendor=0bc7 ProdID=0001 Rev= 1.00 S: Manufacturer=X10 Wireless Technology Inc S: Product=USB ActiveHome Interface C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 2mA I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=cm15a E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=10ms E: Ad=02(O) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=10ms