Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

>From a website on this subject.  Kernel 2.2.7 will work with USB but later 
kernels work better.  THe instructions are for how to recompile your 
kernel to get USB support.  WOuld kernel modules also work with the BL2 
kernels?  THere is something about configuring the kernel to work with USB 
modules below.  Otherwise I suppose bare.i should work.

Chapter 2. How to get USB devices working under Linux

   Table of Contents
   [7]Basic USB Configuration
   [8]USB Device Filesystem
   [9]USB Human Interface Device (HID) Configuration
   [10]USB Scanner Support
   [11]USB Audio Support
   [12]USB Modem Support
   [13]Printer Support
   [14]USB Serial Converter support
   [15]USB Cameras
   [16]USB and Digital Still Cameras
   [17]Mass Storage Devices
   [18]USS720 driver
   [19]DABUSB driver
   [20]PLUSB Prolific USB-Network driver
   [21]USB ADMtek Pegasus-based device support
   [22]USB Diamond Rio500 support
   [23]D-Link USB FM radio support

Basic USB Configuration

   You  need  a  late  version  kernel.  Kernel  versions 2.2.7 and later
   contain  the  USB  code. You should, in an ideal world, be running the
   current  2.3.x  kernel,  ideally  with  any  pre-patches  for the next
   kernel.  The current 2.2.x kernels do contain some USB code, but it is
   badly  out  of  date,  and will not match up with this document. It is
   possible  to use the 2.3.x USB code with a 2.2.x kernel - see later in
   this document for details. USB code is in fairly early development, so
   the  changes between each version (and the bugs) tend to change fairly
   fast.  Support  on  the  mailing  list for anything except the lastest
   version is scant at best.

   The  mailing  list  is  <[24]linux-usb AT suse.com>. To subscribe, send a
   mail  message  to  <[25]majordomo AT suse.com>  with content of subscribe
   linux-usb.  If  you  want to stop getting mailing list content, send a
   mail  message  to <[26]majordomo AT suse.com> with content of unsubscribe
   linux-usb.

   You  need to configure USB into your kernel. Use of make menuconfig is
   recommended.  Under  USB  Support, you need to select Support for USB.
   You  also  need to select either UHCI (Intel PIIX4, VIA, ...) support,
   UHCI  Alternate  Driver (JE) support or OHCI-HCD (Compaq, iMacs, OPTi,
   SiS, ALi, ...) support. Which one you select is dependent on what kind
   of  motherboard  or  adapter you have. Intel and Via motherboards, and
   Via-based  adapters  are  UHCI, and you can use either of the two UHCI
   drivers  -  there  seems  to be little user visible difference between
   them. Ali and SiS chipsets, Compaq and NEC motherboards, iMacs and any
   adapter  using  Opti  chips (just about all of them) are OHCI, and you
   should  use  OHCI-HCD.  If  you do not know what kind of controller to
   choose,  check  your  motherboard  documentation. You can also look at
   /proc/pci  for  a hint - if the USB entry is of the form 0xHHHH, where
   HHHH  are  hex  digits (e.g. something like I/O at 0xe400), then it is
   UHCI.  If  it is of the form 32 bit memory at 0xHH000000, where HH are
   hex  digits (e.g. something like 32 bit memory at 0xee000000), then it
   is OHCI. Failing that, just try both.

   Always  build  in  the Preliminary USB device filesystem. Leaving this
   out  will  make resolving problems almost impossible, and is essential
   if  you  need  to  check that your kernel is configured correctly, and
   your USB devices are being recognised correctly.

   You also need to select whichever devices you want to use, for example
   USB  Human  Interface  Device  (HID)  support  (with  the  appropriate
   subordinate  options)  for  a USB keyboard, mouse, joystick, tablet or
   gamepad,  USB  Scanner support for certain scanners, USB Audio support
   for  USB  speakers,  USB  Modem  (CDC  ACM) support for a POTS or ISDN
   modem,  USB  Printer  support  for a USB printer, USB Serial Converter
   support  (with  the  appropriate  subordinate options) for some serial
   port  type  devices,  USB CPiA Camera support for cameras based on the
   Vision  CPiA chipset, USB IBM (Xirlink) C-it Camera support for camera
   based  on the IBM camera chipset, USB OV511 Camera support for cameras
   based  on  OmniVision's OV511 chipset, USB Kodak DC-2xx Camera support
   for  downloading  images  from Kodak's DC-200 series cameras, USB Mass
   Storage  support  for  mass storage devices, USS720 parport driver for

[usb-storage.o is needed for card readers]

   certain  parallel  port  adapters,  DABUSB  driver for an experimental
   Digital Audio Broadcast receiver and PLUSB Prolific USB-Network driver
   for  certain  USB  to  USB type connections. You should be able to use
   modules, kernel only, or split modules and kernel code.

   USB  hubs are automatically supported. Some devices may stop and start
   working   between   kernel  versions.  Remember  that  you  are  using
   experimental code. Devices not listed in this document are not working
   at  the  time  of  writing,  although developers are always welcome to
   contribute to the current codebase.

   If  you want to use a stable kernel (2.2.x), you can get a patch which
   adds  the latest USB code to certain stable kernels. This patch, often
   referred   to   as   a   backport   patch,   can   be   obtained  from
   [27]http://www.suse.cz/development/usb-backport/.  You apply the patch
   to  the  applicable stable kernel, and recompile. Note that the USS720
   driver  does not work in the backport, since the parallel port code on
   which  it  depends  is substantially different in earlier kernels. USB
   storage  is  also  significantly  different between 2.2 and 2.3 series
   kernels.

   Rebuild  the  kernel  and  the  modules (if you configured to build as
   modules),  and  install the new kernel and the new modules. Reboot the
   system.  If  you  need  instruction  on  how  to do this, refer to the
   [28]Linux Kernel HOWTO.

   If you are using modules, you need to load the following modules:

     * usbcore.o
     * usb-uhci.o, uhci.o or usb-ohci.o

[There are apparenlty THREE kinds of USB port and you need a different 
driver for each one.  uhci is the oldest.  USB2 is faster by 40X.  I think 
USB1 is similar to 100MB ethernet.  Our digital photos would be on an 8MB 
memory card.  Someone else mentioned something other than uhci and ohci.]

   and any driver modules, such as scanner.o or printer.o.

[We have a USB scanner also - I wonder where to get a module for that?]

   Inspect  the  kernel  logs.  If there isn't anything that could be USB
   related,  likely  causes  are  use  of the wrong driver (UHCI when you
   needed  OHCI  or OHCI when you needed UHCI), not physically installing
   the  hardware,  a  BIOS configuration that disables USB or stuffing up
   the configuration or installation of the kernel.

References

   1. http://linuxusbguide.sourceforge.net/USB-guide-1.0.9/book1.html


--------------------
I don't want to get into compiling kernel modules again.  Maybe SW71 
provides these modules already?