[akademy-participant] USB device plugfest

[Armijn Hemel]

hi all,

on Tuesday August 12 (I believe) there will be a USB device plugfest.
Adriaan de Groot and I came up with the idea. The idea is that we sit
down with you (who make the applications) and just plug in hardware
(that you might not have had access to until now), see if it work, try
to find out why it doesn't work and hopefully fix it. A better
explanation can be found here:

http://people.fruitsalad.org/adridg/bobulate/index.php?/archives/551-Kapital-idea-device-day.html

We have found two hardware manufacturers to loan or give us hardware for
testing: Sitecom and Conceptronic. I just received a box of Sitecom
stuff yesterday (and it has to be returned to them, since the guy who
sent it to me had to plunder the supportdesk, he had no time to actually
grab some devices that we could keep) and a box of Conceptronic stuff a
few monhs ago (which we can keep, but I'm quite picky on whom to give it
to, this is no 'free hardware for all' thing). I made a description of
all the Conceptronic stuff, most of the Sitecom stuff (everything apart
the mass storage things and usb-to-gameport, usb-to-serial) and some of
my own hardware. The description sometimes includes a test plan. You
will find it attached to this message. I know it is not entirely
complete, but I hope it will be of use.

Some things I would like to see working: USB2VGA (hello Plasma people),
a cordless presenter (hello KPresenter people), various webcams (hello
Kopete people), some videocards, DVB-T adapters and a SIM card reader
(KDE PIM people needed for that).

Hope to see some of you on the 12th and at our UPnP BoF (no date set
yet, but expect Thursday 14 in the morning).

armijn

-- 
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armijn at uulug.nl | http://www.uulug.nl/ | UULug: Utrecht Linux Users Group
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Testing plan for USB devices at Akademy

This document describes the test plan for the USB plugfest at Akademy. I am
not that familiar with KDE and all the applications, but I have tried to
identify applications that might be using these devices. I would appreciate it
a lot of people working on those programs could make some time to test. Of
course, the people from Solid are expected to be there all the time :-)

It would be good if someone would be there with something else than a Fedora 9,
or something different than Linux altogether.

A part of every test would be to attach and remove a device "ad infinitum"
and see how an application handles that. Another test would be to add two
or more of the same devices and see how if applications get confused.

We have received a fair bunch of devices from Conceptronic
(www.conceptronic.net) to test with. A picture can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/metalmijn/2440884077/

These devices are RMA devices and arrived at my office untested. I tested them
after I made the picture and unfortunately there was a failure rate of between
30% and 80%.

Conceptronic has told me that it is OK to give these devices away. Of course,
I want to give them to developers that will actively work on supporting these
things.

There are also a few devices which I will be bringing which are normally in
active use by several family members. They would be quite upset if they were
taken.

Device: Conceptronic CSOUNDU
Type: USB sound adapter
Applications: Phonon
ID: 0d8c:000c C-Media Electronics, Inc. Audio Adapter
Comments: I have been using this sound card for quite a while now on Fedora 9
with PulseAudio and a lot of GNOME applications, but also Amarok. I don't
expect any big issues with it.
Test plan/expected results: I want to see if it shows up properly in all the
hardware detection tools, if it can be configured, etc.

Device: Conceptronic CTVDIGRCU
Type: DVB-T receiver
Applications: Kaffeine
ID: 14aa:0160 AVerMedia (again) or C&E
Comments: The chipset in this device is the RTL2831U. This chip is not
supported by default in the Linux kernel (let alone BSD), yet.

http://www.linuxtv.org/pipermail/linux-dvb/2007-November/022040.html
http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_USB_Devices#Freecom_rev_4_DVB-T_USB_2.0_tuner

Test plan/expected results: I have no idea if it will work. If someone wants to
help clean up the kernel driver, feel free to grab one.

Device: Conceptronic CHVIDEOCR
Type: TV card
Applications: Kaffeine
ID: eb1a:2821 eMPIA Technology, Inc. 
Comments: The Linux driver for this device is in the standard Linux kernel.
To use it successfully it should be loaded with the right configuration option.
The kernel on my system says:

em28xx #0: Your board has no unique USB ID and thus need a hint to be detected.
em28xx #0: You may try to use card=<n> insmod option to workaround that.
em28xx #0: Please send an email with this log to:
em28xx #0:    V4L Mailing List <video4linux-list at redhat.com>
em28xx #0: Board eeprom hash is 0x00000000
em28xx #0: Board i2c devicelist hash is 0x1ba50080
em28xx #0: Here is a list of valid choices for the card=<n> insmod option:
em28xx #0:     card=0 -> Unknown EM2800 video grabber
em28xx #0:     card=1 -> Unknown EM2750/28xx video grabber
em28xx #0:     card=2 -> Terratec Cinergy 250 USB
em28xx #0:     card=3 -> Pinnacle PCTV USB 2
em28xx #0:     card=4 -> Hauppauge WinTV USB 2
em28xx #0:     card=5 -> MSI VOX USB 2.0
em28xx #0:     card=6 -> Terratec Cinergy 200 USB
em28xx #0:     card=7 -> Leadtek Winfast USB II
em28xx #0:     card=8 -> Kworld USB2800
em28xx #0:     card=9 -> Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 90/DVC 100
em28xx #0:     card=10 -> Hauppauge WinTV HVR 900
em28xx #0:     card=11 -> Terratec Hybrid XS
em28xx #0:     card=12 -> Kworld PVR TV 2800 RF
em28xx #0:     card=13 -> Terratec Prodigy XS
em28xx #0:     card=14 -> Pixelview Prolink PlayTV USB 2.0
em28xx #0:     card=15 -> V-Gear PocketTV
em28xx #0:     card=16 -> Hauppauge WinTV HVR 950
em28xx #0: V4L2 device registered as /dev/video0 and /dev/vbi0
em28xx #0: Found Unknown EM2750/28xx video grabber

I *think* it should be loaded with configuration '9' to make it work properly.
Anyway, it is quite annoying. It *should* work.

Test plan/expected results: I am not so sure about if we can make any
assumptions to load the 'right' configuration, or that we should push this
towards the upstream V4L mailinglist (I think so). In that case, it would
simply be a matter of documenting what users should send to that list.

Device: Conceptronic CBT200U2
Type: Bluetooth dongle
ID: 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Applications: anything that wants to do Bluetooth stuff (NetworkManager?)
Comments: This device should work painlessly, but it never hurts to
check :-)

Device: Conceptronic something (no type number visible)
Type: wired NIC
ID: 08dd:90ff Billionton Systems, Inc. USB2AR Ethernet
Applications: Networkmanager
Comments: This should be a no brainer, but it never hurts to check :-)

Device: Conceptronic CiR4U
Type: Infrared dongle
ID: 066f:4210 SigmaTel, Inc. STIr4210 IrDA Bridge
Applications: whatever sets up PPP connections (NetworkManager?)
Comments: This is a FIR (Fast Infra Red) device, used for setting up network
connections between devices through infrared. This used to be popular in the
1990s, but has largely been replaced with Bluetooth, which is easier and less
error prone, as there does not have to be a line of sight between a device
and a dongle. However, it is still useful to have. Note: this is not for
things like TV remote controls, but rather a whole protocol stack (IrLAN,
IrOBEX, IrCOMM), instead of just sending codes.

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_Data_Association for more about
the whole stack.

Since I don't expect people to have devices that use IrDA, I will bring either
a Dell Axim (old model), or Archos PMA400, which both have IrDA.

Test plan/expected results: I want to hook up the dongle and see if we can work
out something to automatically set up a PPP connection between the device and
the dongle. This would mean: select an IP address, add routing and firewalling,
initiating the connection, and so on, until I got a proper network connection
on my PDA.

------ The devices below are my own. Don't take them --------

Device: Sitecom CN-100
Type: Infrared dongle
ID: 050f:0180 KC Technology, Inc. KC-180 IrDA Dongle
Applications: whatever sets up PPP connections (NetworkManager?)
Comments: This is a FIR (Fast Infra Red) device, used for setting up network
connections between devices through infrared. This used to be popular in the
1990s, but has largely been replaced with Bluetooth, which is easier and less
error prone, as there does not have to be a line of sight between a device
and a dongle. However, it is still useful to have. Note: this is not for
things like TV remote controls, but rather a whole protocol stack (IrLAN,
IrOBEX, IrCOMM), instead of just sending codes.

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_Data_Association for more about
the whole stack.

Since I don't expect people to have devices that use IrDA, I will bring either
a Dell Axim (old model), or Archos PMA400, which both have IrDA.

Test plan/expected results: I want to hook up the dongle and see if we can work
out something to automatically set up a PPP connection between the device and
the dongle. This would mean: select an IP address, add routing and firewalling,
initiating the connection, and so on, until I got a proper network connection
on my PDA.

Device: Medion USB RF Remote Receiver
Type: radio controlled receiver
ID: 0bc7:0006 X10 Wireless Technology, Inc. Wireless Transceiver (ACPI-compliant)
Applications: any application that should be controlled by a remote control (Amarok, DragonPlayer, you name it)
Comments: The Linux kernel should already recognize this device:

usb 3-2: Product: USB Receiver
usb 3-2: Manufacturer: X10 Wireless Technology Inc
lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 61 
lirc_atiusb: USB remote driver for LIRC $Revision: 1.67 $
lirc_atiusb: Paul Miller <pmiller9 at users.sourceforge.net>
lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
lirc_atiusb[3]: X10 Wireless Technology Inc USB Receiver on usb3:3
usbcore: registered new interface driver lirc_atiusb
usbcore: registered new interface driver ati_remote
drivers/input/misc/ati_remote.c: Registered USB driver ATI/X10 RF USB Remote Control v. 2.2.1

It has been a while since I played with this device.

Test plan/expected results: ?

Device: Cherry keyboard
Type: keyboard
ID: 046a:0023 Cherry GmbH Cymotion Master Linux Keyboard
Applications: Media applications?
Comments: The Cherry Cymotion Linux keyboard was released a few years ago and
actually has a K key for one of the menu keys and also a few other multimedia
keys.
Test plan/expected results: I want to see how the keys can be remapped for
various applications and maybe include some "sane" defaults, such as the '-'
and '+' keys, which should clearly be mapped to decreasing and increasing
volume levels.

Device: Linksys WUSB54G v4
Type: Wireless NIC
ID: 13b1:000d Linksys WUSB54G Wireless Adapter
Applications: NetworkManager
Comments: This should already be handled by the Linux kernel with the rt2500usb
driver (or another, whatever is the new wireless driver in Linux these days).
Maybe it would just be nice to see that it works from the desktop.

Device: Linksys WUSB11 v2.6
Type: Wireless NIC
ID: 077b:2219 Linksys WUSB11 V2.6 802.11b Adapter
Applications: NetworkManager
Comments: This should already be handled by the Linux kernel with the at76_usb
driver (or another, whatever is the new wireless driver in Linux these days).
Maybe it would just be nice to see that it works from the desktop. Interestingly,
it seems to hang the USB system completely when it is removed.

Device: nameless USB-MZ-I
Type: Wireless NIC
ID: 0ace:1215 ZyDAS WLA-54L WiFi
Applications: NetworkManager
Comments: This should already be handled by the Linux kernel with the zd1211
driver (or another, whatever is the new wireless driver in Linux these days).
Maybe it would just be nice to see that it works from the desktop.

Device: Siemens IP 40 phone cable
Type: Serial cable
ID: 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port
Applications: PIM applications, file manager
Comments: The device is used to connect a Siemens phone (such as my MC-60)
to a computer, so you can get text messages, photos and other things from
the phone. There is a project at http://chaos.allsiemens.com/siefs/
that has a FUSE implementation for the protocol. I'm not sure if this is
the right way to add support to it applications, but it might just be. I
would like to be able to sync my phone with my desktop applications, that's
for sure.

Device: Blue Fritz! 2.0
Type: Bluetooth adapter
ID: 057c:3800 AVM GmbH BlueFRITZ! Bluetooth Stick
Applications:
Comment: This one should work flawlessly, just check.

Device: IRISpen
Type: Scanner
ID: 086b:0301
Applications: ?
Comment: The device is, ehm, interesting to say the least. It is fairly
unknown and does not work really well on Windows either. The protocol
probably has to be reverse engineered (using USB snooping tools and all that)
to see what we can do with it. If it is worth the effort I don't know. Any
takers?

--- The devices below have to be returned to Sitecom. Don't take them ---

Device: MD-010 v001
Type: SIM card reader
ID: 0df6:800a Sitecom Europe B.V.
Applications: PIM applications
Comments: This is a device to make backups of contents of SIM cards, such
as phone numbers and text messages. I don't think there actually is a driver
for this device in Linux.

Device: MD-014 v1 001
Type: Card reader
ID: 058f:6362 Alcor Micro Corp. Hi-Speed 21-in-1 Flash Card Reader/Writer (Internal/External)
Applications: file system
Comments: This device should be no problem at all. It's just to verify that
stuff actually works.

Device: VP-003
Type: Webcam, with microphone.
ID: 0c45:6028 Microdia Typhoon Easycam USB 330K (older)
Applications: Kopete
Comments: The kernel recognizes the device as a SN9C1xx device and V4L2
registers it as /dev/video0 on my system. It should not be an issue as long
as Kopete (and other apps) have V4L2 support. The microphone should also work (but
that should be tested too).

Device: VP-005
Type: Webcam, with microphone.
ID: 115b:1322 Salix Technology Co., Ltd. 
Applications: Kopete
Comments: The kernel only recognizes the audio part, but not the camera part.
I don't know what the chipset is and I can't open the device to find out. It
looks like it is really obscure.

Device: Cordless Presenter TC-140
Type: keyboard/mouse
ID: 062a:197a Creative Labs
Applications: KOffice/KPresenter
Comments:

The kernel recognizes the device as a keyboard and mouse

input: MOSART Semi. Input Device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.1/usb3/3-2/3-2:1.0/input/input14
input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [MOSART Semi. Input Device] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-2
input: MOSART Semi. Input Device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.1/usb3/3-2/3-2:1.1/input/input15
input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [MOSART Semi. Input Device] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-2

It should be fairly easy to get it to work, but I don't know how (D-BUS? event system?).

Device: CN-105
Type: USB to VGA adapter
ID: 182d:0269
Applications: Xorg/Plasma
Comments: The driver gives a kernel oops on Fedora 9 if you disconnect it. The
device seems to be a SiS based device. A driver has existed for quite a long
time, but it seems it might need some love:

http://lwn.net/Articles/119804/
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/AddVGAAdapter
http://www.winischhofer.eu/linuxsisusbvga.shtml

-- The devices below are on site, as far as I know. Don't take them either ---

Some Logitech webcams, including Orbits. These are fun, because they actually
have some motors. These work with the UVC driver, but there might be some
application support (Kopete?) to make them work as expected.