INTRODUCTION
The USB serial driver currently supports a number of different USB to
serial converter products, as well as some devices that use a serial
interface from userspace to talk to the device.
See the individual product section below for specific information about
the different devices.
CONFIGURATION
Currently the driver can handle up to 256 different serial interfaces at
one time.
If you are not using devfs:
The major number that the driver uses is 188 so to use the driver,
create the following nodes:
mknod /dev/ttyUSB0 c 188 0
mknod /dev/ttyUSB1 c 188 1
mknod /dev/ttyUSB2 c 188 2
mknod /dev/ttyUSB3 c 188 3
.
.
.
mknod /dev/ttyUSB254 c 188 254
mknod /dev/ttyUSB255 c 188 255
If you are using devfs:
The devices supported by this driver will show up as
/dev/usb/tts/{0,1,...}
When the device is connected and recognized by the driver, the driver
will print to the system log, which node(s) the device has been bound
to.
SPECIFIC DEVICES SUPPORTED
ConnectTech WhiteHEAT 4 port converter
ConnectTech has been very forthcoming with information about their
device, including providing a unit to test with. This driver will end up
being fully supported.
Current status:
The device's firmware is downloaded on connection, the new firmware
runs properly and all four ports are successfully recognized and connected.
Data can be sent and received through the device on all ports.
Hardware flow control needs to be implemented.
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Greg
Kroah-Hartman at greg@kroah.com
HandSpring Visor, Palm USB, and Clié USB driver
This driver works with all HandSpring USB, Palm USB, and Sony Clié USB
devices.
Only when the device tries to connect to the host, will the device show
up to the host as a valid USB device. When this happens, the device is
properly enumerated, assigned a port, and then communication _should_ be
possible. The driver cleans up properly when the device is removed, or
the connection is canceled on the device.
NOTE:
This means that in order to talk to the device, the sync button must be
pressed BEFORE trying to get any program to communicate to the device.
This goes against the current documentation for pilot-xfer and other
packages, but is the only way that it will work due to the hardware
in the device.
When the device is connected, try talking to it on the second port
(this is usually /dev/ttyUSB1 if you do not have any other usb-serial
devices in the system.) The system log should tell you which port is
the port to use for the HotSync transfer. The "Generic" port can be used
for other device communication, such as a PPP link.
For some Sony Clié devices, /dev/ttyUSB0 must be used to talk to the
device. This is true for all OS version 3.5 devices, and most devices
that have had a flash upgrade to a newer version of the OS. See the
kernel system log for information on which is the correct port to use.
If after pressing the sync button, nothing shows up in the system log,
try resetting the device, first a hot reset, and then a cold reset if
necessary. Some devices need this before they can talk to the USB port
properly.
Devices that are not compiled into the kernel can be specified with module
parameters. e.g. modprobe visor vendor=0x54c product=0x66
There is a webpage and mailing lists for this portion of the driver at:
http://usbvisor.sourceforge.net/
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Greg
Kroah-Hartman at greg@kroah.com
PocketPC PDA Driver
This driver can be used to connect to Compaq iPAQ, HP Jornada, Casio EM500
and other PDAs running Windows CE 3.0 or PocketPC 2002 using a USB
cable/cradle.
Most devices supported by ActiveSync are supported out of the box.
For others, please use module parameters to specify the product and vendor
id. e.g. modprobe ipaq vendor=0x3f0 product=0x1125
The driver presents a serial interface (usually on /dev/ttyUSB0) over
which one may run ppp and establish a TCP/IP link to the PDA. Once this
is done, you can transfer files, backup, download email etc. The most
significant advantage of using USB is speed - I can get 73 to 113
kbytes/sec for download/upload to my iPAQ.
This driver is only one of a set of components required to utilize
the USB connection. Please visit http://synce.sourceforge.net which
contains the necessary packages and a simple step-by-step howto.
Once connected, you can use Win CE programs like ftpView, Pocket Outlook
from the PDA and xcerdisp, synce utilities from the Linux side.
To use Pocket IE, follow the instructions given at
http://www.tekguru.co.uk/EM500/usbtonet.htm to achieve the same thing
on Win98. Omit the proxy server part; Linux is quite capable of forwarding
packets unlike Win98. Another modification is required at least for the
iPAQ - disable autosync by going to the Start/Settings/Connections menu
and unchecking the "Automatically synchronize ..." box. Go to
Start/Programs/Connections, connect the cable and select "usbdial" (or
whatever you named your new USB connection). You should finally wind
up with a "Connected to usbdial" window with status shown as connected.
Now start up PIE and browse away.
If it doesn't work for some reason, load both the usbserial and ipaq module
with the module parameter "debug" set to 1 and examine the system log.
You can also try soft-resetting your PDA before attempting a connection.
Other functionality may be possible depending on your PDA. According to
Wes Cilldhaire <billybobjoehenrybob@hotmail.com>, with the Toshiba E570,
...if you boot into the bootloader (hold down the power when hitting the
reset button, continuing to hold onto the power until the bootloader screen
is displayed), then put it in the cradle with the ipaq driver loaded, open
a terminal on /dev/ttyUSB0, it gives you a "USB Reflash" terminal, which can
be used to flash the ROM, as well as the microP code.. so much for needing
Toshiba's $350 serial cable for flashing!! :D
NOTE: This has NOT been tested. Use at your own risk.
For any questions or problems with the driver, please contact Ganesh
Varadarajan <ganesh@veritas.com>
Keyspan PDA Serial Adapter
Single port DB-9 serial adapter, pushed as a PDA adapter for iMacs (mostly
sold in Macintosh catalogs, comes in a translucent white/green dongle).
Fairly simple device. Firmware is homebrew.
This driver also works for the Xircom/Entrgra single port serial adapter.
Current status:
Things that work:
basic input/output (tested with 'cu')
blocking write when serial line can't keep up
changing baud rates (up to 115200)
getting/setting modem control pins (TIOCM{GET,SET,BIS,BIC})
sending break (although duration looks suspect)
Things that don't:
device strings (as logged by kernel) have trailing binary garbage
device ID isn't right, might collide with other Keyspan products
changing baud rates ought to flush tx/rx to avoid mangled half characters
Big Things on the todo list:
parity, 7 vs 8 bits per char, 1 or 2 stop bits
HW flow control
not all of the standard USB descriptors are handled: Get_Status, Set_Feature
O_NONBLOCK, select()
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Brian
Warner at warner@lothar.com
Keyspan USA-series Serial Adapters
Single, Dual and Quad port adapters - driver uses Keyspan supplied
firmware and is being developed with their support.
Current status:
The USA-18X, USA-28X, USA-19, USA-19W and USA-49W are supported and
have been pretty throughly tested at various baud rates with 8-N-1
character settings. Other character lengths and parity setups are
presently untested.
The USA-28 isn't yet supported though doing so should be pretty
straightforward. Contact the maintainer if you require this
functionality.
More information is available at:
http://misc.nu/hugh/keyspan.html
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Hugh
Blemings at hugh@misc.nu
FTDI Single Port Serial Driver
This is a single port DB-25 serial adapter. More information about this
device and the Linux driver can be found at:
http://reality.sgi.com/bryder_wellington/ftdi_sio/
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Bill Ryder
at bryder@sgi.com
ZyXEL omni.net lcd plus ISDN TA
This is an ISDN TA. Please report both successes and troubles to the
author at omninet@kroah.com
Digi AccelePort Driver
This driver supports the Digi AccelePort USB 2 and 4 devices, 2 port
(plus a parallel port) and 4 port USB serial converters. The driver
does NOT yet support the Digi AccelePort USB 8.
This driver works under SMP with the usb-uhci driver. It does not
work under SMP with the uhci driver.
The driver is generally working, though we still have a few more ioctls
to implement and final testing and debugging to do. The paralled port
on the USB 2 is supported as a serial to parallel converter; in other
words, it appears as another USB serial port on Linux, even though
physically it is really a parallel port. The Digi Acceleport USB 8
is not yet supported.
Please contact Peter Berger (pberger@brimson.com) or Al Borchers
(alborchers@steinerpoint.com) for questions or problems with this
driver.
Belkin USB Serial Adapter F5U103
Single port DB-9/PS-2 serial adapter from Belkin with firmware by eTEK Labs.
The Peracom single port serial adapter also works with this driver, as
well as the GoHubs adapter.
Current status:
The following have been tested and work:
Baud rate 300-230400
Data bits 5-8
Stop bits 1-2
Parity N,E,O,M,S
Handshake None, Software (XON/XOFF), Hardware (CTSRTS,CTSDTR)*
Break Set and clear
Line contrl Input/Output query and control **
* Hardware input flow control is only enabled for firmware
levels above 2.06. Read source code comments describing Belkin
firmware errata. Hardware output flow control is working for all
firmware versions.
** Queries of inputs (CTS,DSR,CD,RI) show the last
reported state. Queries of outputs (DTR,RTS) show the last
requested state and may not reflect current state as set by
automatic hardware flow control.
TO DO List:
-- Add true modem contol line query capability. Currently tracks the
states reported by the interrupt and the states requested.
-- Add error reporting back to application for UART error conditions.
-- Add support for flush ioctls.
-- Add everything else that is missing :)
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact William
Greathouse at wgreathouse@smva.com
Empeg empeg-car Mark I/II Driver
This is an experimental driver to provide connectivity support for the
client synchronization tools for an Empeg empeg-car mp3 player.
Tips:
* Don't forget to create the device nodes for ttyUSB{0,1,2,...}
* modprobe empeg (modprobe is your friend)
* emptool --usb /dev/ttyUSB0 (or whatever you named your device node)
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Gary
Brubaker at xavyer@ix.netcom.com
MCT USB Single Port Serial Adapter U232
This driver is for the MCT USB-RS232 Converter (25 pin, Model No.
U232-P25) from Magic Control Technology Corp. (there is also a 9 pin
Model No. U232-P9). More information about this device can be found at
the manufacture's web-site: http://www.mct.com.tw.
The driver is generally working, though it still needs some more testing.
It is derived from the Belkin USB Serial Adapter F5U103 driver and its
TODO list is valid for this driver as well.
This driver has also been found to work for other products, which have
the same Vendor ID but different Product IDs. Sitecom's U232-P25 serial
converter uses Product ID 0x230 and Vendor ID 0x711 and works with this
driver. Also, D-Link's DU-H3SP USB BAY also works with this driver.
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Wolfgang
Grandegger at wolfgang@ces.ch
Inside Out Networks Edgeport Driver
This driver supports all devices made by Inside Out Networks, specifically
the following models:
Edgeport/4
Rapidport/4
Edgeport/4t
Edgeport/2
Edgeport/4i
Edgeport/2i
Edgeport/421
Edgeport/21
Edgeport/8
Edgeport/8 Dual
Edgeport/2D8
Edgeport/4D8
Edgeport/8i
Edgeport/2 DIN
Edgeport/4 DIN
Edgeport/16 Dual
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Greg
Kroah-Hartman at greg@kroah.com
REINER SCT cyberJack pinpad/e-com USB chipcard reader
Interface to ISO 7816 compatible contactbased chipcards, e.g. GSM SIMs.
Current status:
This is the kernel part of the driver for this USB card reader.
There is also a user part for a CT-API driver available. A site
for downloading is TBA. For now, you can request it from the
maintainer (linux-usb@sii.li).
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact
linux-usb@sii.li
Prolific PL2303 Driver
This driver support any device that has the PL2303 chip from Prolific
in it. This includes a number of single port USB to serial
converters and USB GPS devices. Devices from Aten (the UC-232) and
IO-Data work with this driver.
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Greg
Kroah-Hartman at greg@kroah.com
KL5KUSB105 chipset / PalmConnect USB single-port adapter
Current status:
The driver was put together by looking at the usb bus transactions
done by Palm's driver under Windows, so a lot of functionality is
still missing. Notably, serial ioctls are sometimes faked or not yet
implemented. Support for finding out about DSR and CTS line status is
however implemented (though not nicely), so your favorite autopilot(1)
and pilot-manager -daemon calls will work. Baud rates up to 115200
are supported, but handshaking (software or hardware) is not, which is
why it is wise to cut down on the rate used is wise for large
transfers until this is settled.
Options supported:
If this driver is compiled as a module you can pass the following
options to it:
debug - extra verbose debugging info
(default: 0; nonzero enables)
use_lowlatency - use low_latency flag to speed up tty layer
when reading from from the device.
(default: 0; nonzero enables)
See http://www.uuhaus.de/linux/palmconnect.html for up-to-date
information on this driver.
Generic Serial driver
If your device is not one of the above listed devices, compatible with
the above models, you can try out the "generic" interface. This
interface does not provide any type of control messages sent to the
device, and does not support any kind of device flow control. All that
is required of your device is that it has at least one bulk in endpoint,
or one bulk out endpoint.
To enable the generic driver to recognize your device, build the driver
as a module and load it by the following invocation:
insmod usbserial vendor=0x#### product=0x####
where the #### is replaced with the hex representation of your device's
vendor id and product id.
This driver has been successfully used to connect to the NetChip USB
development board, providing a way to develop USB firmware without
having to write a custom driver.
For any questions or problems with this driver, please contact Greg
Kroah-Hartman at greg@kroah.com
CONTACT:
If anyone has any problems using these drivers, with any of the above
specified products, please contact the specific driver's author listed
above, or join the Linux-USB mailing list (information on joining the
mailing list, as well as a link to its searchable archive is at
http://www.linux-usb.org/ )
Greg Kroah-Hartman
greg@kroah.com
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.