[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       linux-usb-users
Subject:    Re: [Linux-usb-users] USB Storage Confusion - a paradox? How!??
From:       Alan Stern <stern () rowland ! harvard ! edu>
Date:       2005-04-29 13:53:23
Message-ID: Pine.LNX.4.44L0.0504290944470.5325-100000 () iolanthe ! rowland ! org
[Download RAW message or body]

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005, Zoont Foomby wrote:

> I have a situation, thanks to VMware, where I want to block the the
> various USB drivers in Linux from recognizing and attaching to a
> device when I plug it in... HOWEVER, I have a similiar device that
> must remain plugged in and attached.
> 
> Basically, I have a Debian system with Kernel 2.6.10 which stores a
> lot of necessary data (VMWare images) on an external USB hard disk. I
> want to now load up Windows XP in VMWare and attach a USB DVDRW drive
> to WindowsXP. I can only do this if Linux does not attach to and thus
> claim the DVDRW drive when I plug it in. From my reading my log/dmesg
> output, I can see that the usb-storage driver controls access to both
> of my devices, so the typical answer I see everywhere of "rmmod
> usb-storage" won't really work, as I understand it. If  I rmmod
> usb-storage, then my external hard disk will become unavailable,
> VMWare will crash, and I won't need to bother trying to use the DVDRW
> drive anyway.
> 
> Is there ANY way to block USB from attaching a specific device, given
> perhaps by its ID, manufacturer, or some unique characteristic?

You seem to be asking two closely related but different questions:

	Is there any way to prevent a USB driver from binding to a
	particular device?  In general, no.  However if you really
	wanted to, you could hack the driver's source code to make
	it recognize that device and refuse to bind to it.

	Is there any way to force a USB driver to unbind from a
	particular device once it is bound?  Yes.  For an example
	of a program to do this, see

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-usb-devel&m=111390170718187&w=2

	You will want to use the "-d ifnum" option.

Alan Stern



-------------------------------------------------------
SF.Net email is sponsored by: Tell us your software development plans!
Take this survey and enter to win a one-year sub to SourceForge.net
Plus IDC's 2005 look-ahead and a copy of this survey
Click here to start!  http://www.idcswdc.com/cgi-bin/survey?id=105hix
_______________________________________________
Linux-usb-users@lists.sourceforge.net
To unsubscribe, use the last form field at:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-usb-users
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]