| <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> | |
| <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN" | |
| "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []> | |
| <book id="USB-Gadget-API"> | |
| <bookinfo> | |
| <title>USB Gadget API for Linux</title> | |
| <date>20 August 2004</date> | |
| <edition>20 August 2004</edition> | |
| <legalnotice> | |
| <para> | |
| This documentation is free software; you can redistribute | |
| it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public | |
| License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either | |
| version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later | |
| version. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| This program is distributed in the hope that it will be | |
| useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied | |
| warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. | |
| See the GNU General Public License for more details. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public | |
| License along with this program; if not, write to the Free | |
| Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, | |
| MA 02111-1307 USA | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| For more details see the file COPYING in the source | |
| distribution of Linux. | |
| </para> | |
| </legalnotice> | |
| <copyright> | |
| <year>2003-2004</year> | |
| <holder>David Brownell</holder> | |
| </copyright> | |
| <author> | |
| <firstname>David</firstname> | |
| <surname>Brownell</surname> | |
| <affiliation> | |
| <address><email>dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net</email></address> | |
| </affiliation> | |
| </author> | |
| </bookinfo> | |
| <toc></toc> | |
| <chapter id="intro"><title>Introduction</title> | |
| <para>This document presents a Linux-USB "Gadget" | |
| kernel mode | |
| API, for use within peripherals and other USB devices | |
| that embed Linux. | |
| It provides an overview of the API structure, | |
| and shows how that fits into a system development project. | |
| This is the first such API released on Linux to address | |
| a number of important problems, including: </para> | |
| <itemizedlist> | |
| <listitem><para>Supports USB 2.0, for high speed devices which | |
| can stream data at several dozen megabytes per second. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>Handles devices with dozens of endpoints just as | |
| well as ones with just two fixed-function ones. Gadget drivers | |
| can be written so they're easy to port to new hardware. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>Flexible enough to expose more complex USB device | |
| capabilities such as multiple configurations, multiple interfaces, | |
| composite devices, | |
| and alternate interface settings. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>USB "On-The-Go" (OTG) support, in conjunction | |
| with updates to the Linux-USB host side. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>Sharing data structures and API models with the | |
| Linux-USB host side API. This helps the OTG support, and | |
| looks forward to more-symmetric frameworks (where the same | |
| I/O model is used by both host and device side drivers). | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>Minimalist, so it's easier to support new device | |
| controller hardware. I/O processing doesn't imply large | |
| demands for memory or CPU resources. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| </itemizedlist> | |
| <para>Most Linux developers will not be able to use this API, since they | |
| have USB "host" hardware in a PC, workstation, or server. | |
| Linux users with embedded systems are more likely to | |
| have USB peripheral hardware. | |
| To distinguish drivers running inside such hardware from the | |
| more familiar Linux "USB device drivers", | |
| which are host side proxies for the real USB devices, | |
| a different term is used: | |
| the drivers inside the peripherals are "USB gadget drivers". | |
| In USB protocol interactions, the device driver is the master | |
| (or "client driver") | |
| and the gadget driver is the slave (or "function driver"). | |
| </para> | |
| <para>The gadget API resembles the host side Linux-USB API in that both | |
| use queues of request objects to package I/O buffers, and those requests | |
| may be submitted or canceled. | |
| They share common definitions for the standard USB | |
| <emphasis>Chapter 9</emphasis> messages, structures, and constants. | |
| Also, both APIs bind and unbind drivers to devices. | |
| The APIs differ in detail, since the host side's current | |
| URB framework exposes a number of implementation details | |
| and assumptions that are inappropriate for a gadget API. | |
| While the model for control transfers and configuration | |
| management is necessarily different (one side is a hardware-neutral master, | |
| the other is a hardware-aware slave), the endpoint I/0 API used here | |
| should also be usable for an overhead-reduced host side API. | |
| </para> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="structure"><title>Structure of Gadget Drivers</title> | |
| <para>A system running inside a USB peripheral | |
| normally has at least three layers inside the kernel to handle | |
| USB protocol processing, and may have additional layers in | |
| user space code. | |
| The "gadget" API is used by the middle layer to interact | |
| with the lowest level (which directly handles hardware). | |
| </para> | |
| <para>In Linux, from the bottom up, these layers are: | |
| </para> | |
| <variablelist> | |
| <varlistentry> | |
| <term><emphasis>USB Controller Driver</emphasis></term> | |
| <listitem> | |
| <para>This is the lowest software level. | |
| It is the only layer that talks to hardware, | |
| through registers, fifos, dma, irqs, and the like. | |
| The <filename><linux/usb/gadget.h></filename> API abstracts | |
| the peripheral controller endpoint hardware. | |
| That hardware is exposed through endpoint objects, which accept | |
| streams of IN/OUT buffers, and through callbacks that interact | |
| with gadget drivers. | |
| Since normal USB devices only have one upstream | |
| port, they only have one of these drivers. | |
| The controller driver can support any number of different | |
| gadget drivers, but only one of them can be used at a time. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Examples of such controller hardware include | |
| the PCI-based NetChip 2280 USB 2.0 high speed controller, | |
| the SA-11x0 or PXA-25x UDC (found within many PDAs), | |
| and a variety of other products. | |
| </para> | |
| </listitem></varlistentry> | |
| <varlistentry> | |
| <term><emphasis>Gadget Driver</emphasis></term> | |
| <listitem> | |
| <para>The lower boundary of this driver implements hardware-neutral | |
| USB functions, using calls to the controller driver. | |
| Because such hardware varies widely in capabilities and restrictions, | |
| and is used in embedded environments where space is at a premium, | |
| the gadget driver is often configured at compile time | |
| to work with endpoints supported by one particular controller. | |
| Gadget drivers may be portable to several different controllers, | |
| using conditional compilation. | |
| (Recent kernels substantially simplify the work involved in | |
| supporting new hardware, by <emphasis>autoconfiguring</emphasis> | |
| endpoints automatically for many bulk-oriented drivers.) | |
| Gadget driver responsibilities include: | |
| </para> | |
| <itemizedlist> | |
| <listitem><para>handling setup requests (ep0 protocol responses) | |
| possibly including class-specific functionality | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>returning configuration and string descriptors | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>(re)setting configurations and interface | |
| altsettings, including enabling and configuring endpoints | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>handling life cycle events, such as managing | |
| bindings to hardware, | |
| USB suspend/resume, remote wakeup, | |
| and disconnection from the USB host. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>managing IN and OUT transfers on all currently | |
| enabled endpoints | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| </itemizedlist> | |
| <para> | |
| Such drivers may be modules of proprietary code, although | |
| that approach is discouraged in the Linux community. | |
| </para> | |
| </listitem></varlistentry> | |
| <varlistentry> | |
| <term><emphasis>Upper Level</emphasis></term> | |
| <listitem> | |
| <para>Most gadget drivers have an upper boundary that connects | |
| to some Linux driver or framework in Linux. | |
| Through that boundary flows the data which the gadget driver | |
| produces and/or consumes through protocol transfers over USB. | |
| Examples include: | |
| </para> | |
| <itemizedlist> | |
| <listitem><para>user mode code, using generic (gadgetfs) | |
| or application specific files in | |
| <filename>/dev</filename> | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>networking subsystem (for network gadgets, | |
| like the CDC Ethernet Model gadget driver) | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>data capture drivers, perhaps video4Linux or | |
| a scanner driver; or test and measurement hardware. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>input subsystem (for HID gadgets) | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>sound subsystem (for audio gadgets) | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>file system (for PTP gadgets) | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>block i/o subsystem (for usb-storage gadgets) | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>... and more </para></listitem> | |
| </itemizedlist> | |
| </listitem></varlistentry> | |
| <varlistentry> | |
| <term><emphasis>Additional Layers</emphasis></term> | |
| <listitem> | |
| <para>Other layers may exist. | |
| These could include kernel layers, such as network protocol stacks, | |
| as well as user mode applications building on standard POSIX | |
| system call APIs such as | |
| <emphasis>open()</emphasis>, <emphasis>close()</emphasis>, | |
| <emphasis>read()</emphasis> and <emphasis>write()</emphasis>. | |
| On newer systems, POSIX Async I/O calls may be an option. | |
| Such user mode code will not necessarily be subject to | |
| the GNU General Public License (GPL). | |
| </para> | |
| </listitem></varlistentry> | |
| </variablelist> | |
| <para>OTG-capable systems will also need to include a standard Linux-USB | |
| host side stack, | |
| with <emphasis>usbcore</emphasis>, | |
| one or more <emphasis>Host Controller Drivers</emphasis> (HCDs), | |
| <emphasis>USB Device Drivers</emphasis> to support | |
| the OTG "Targeted Peripheral List", | |
| and so forth. | |
| There will also be an <emphasis>OTG Controller Driver</emphasis>, | |
| which is visible to gadget and device driver developers only indirectly. | |
| That helps the host and device side USB controllers implement the | |
| two new OTG protocols (HNP and SRP). | |
| Roles switch (host to peripheral, or vice versa) using HNP | |
| during USB suspend processing, and SRP can be viewed as a | |
| more battery-friendly kind of device wakeup protocol. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Over time, reusable utilities are evolving to help make some | |
| gadget driver tasks simpler. | |
| For example, building configuration descriptors from vectors of | |
| descriptors for the configurations interfaces and endpoints is | |
| now automated, and many drivers now use autoconfiguration to | |
| choose hardware endpoints and initialize their descriptors. | |
| A potential example of particular interest | |
| is code implementing standard USB-IF protocols for | |
| HID, networking, storage, or audio classes. | |
| Some developers are interested in KDB or KGDB hooks, to let | |
| target hardware be remotely debugged. | |
| Most such USB protocol code doesn't need to be hardware-specific, | |
| any more than network protocols like X11, HTTP, or NFS are. | |
| Such gadget-side interface drivers should eventually be combined, | |
| to implement composite devices. | |
| </para> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="api"><title>Kernel Mode Gadget API</title> | |
| <para>Gadget drivers declare themselves through a | |
| <emphasis>struct usb_gadget_driver</emphasis>, which is responsible for | |
| most parts of enumeration for a <emphasis>struct usb_gadget</emphasis>. | |
| The response to a set_configuration usually involves | |
| enabling one or more of the <emphasis>struct usb_ep</emphasis> objects | |
| exposed by the gadget, and submitting one or more | |
| <emphasis>struct usb_request</emphasis> buffers to transfer data. | |
| Understand those four data types, and their operations, and | |
| you will understand how this API works. | |
| </para> | |
| <note><title>Incomplete Data Type Descriptions</title> | |
| <para>This documentation was prepared using the standard Linux | |
| kernel <filename>docproc</filename> tool, which turns text | |
| and in-code comments into SGML DocBook and then into usable | |
| formats such as HTML or PDF. | |
| Other than the "Chapter 9" data types, most of the significant | |
| data types and functions are described here. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>However, docproc does not understand all the C constructs | |
| that are used, so some relevant information is likely omitted from | |
| what you are reading. | |
| One example of such information is endpoint autoconfiguration. | |
| You'll have to read the header file, and use example source | |
| code (such as that for "Gadget Zero"), to fully understand the API. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>The part of the API implementing some basic | |
| driver capabilities is specific to the version of the | |
| Linux kernel that's in use. | |
| The 2.6 kernel includes a <emphasis>driver model</emphasis> | |
| framework that has no analogue on earlier kernels; | |
| so those parts of the gadget API are not fully portable. | |
| (They are implemented on 2.4 kernels, but in a different way.) | |
| The driver model state is another part of this API that is | |
| ignored by the kerneldoc tools. | |
| </para> | |
| </note> | |
| <para>The core API does not expose | |
| every possible hardware feature, only the most widely available ones. | |
| There are significant hardware features, such as device-to-device DMA | |
| (without temporary storage in a memory buffer) | |
| that would be added using hardware-specific APIs. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>This API allows drivers to use conditional compilation to handle | |
| endpoint capabilities of different hardware, but doesn't require that. | |
| Hardware tends to have arbitrary restrictions, relating to | |
| transfer types, addressing, packet sizes, buffering, and availability. | |
| As a rule, such differences only matter for "endpoint zero" logic | |
| that handles device configuration and management. | |
| The API supports limited run-time | |
| detection of capabilities, through naming conventions for endpoints. | |
| Many drivers will be able to at least partially autoconfigure | |
| themselves. | |
| In particular, driver init sections will often have endpoint | |
| autoconfiguration logic that scans the hardware's list of endpoints | |
| to find ones matching the driver requirements | |
| (relying on those conventions), to eliminate some of the most | |
| common reasons for conditional compilation. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Like the Linux-USB host side API, this API exposes | |
| the "chunky" nature of USB messages: I/O requests are in terms | |
| of one or more "packets", and packet boundaries are visible to drivers. | |
| Compared to RS-232 serial protocols, USB resembles | |
| synchronous protocols like HDLC | |
| (N bytes per frame, multipoint addressing, host as the primary | |
| station and devices as secondary stations) | |
| more than asynchronous ones | |
| (tty style: 8 data bits per frame, no parity, one stop bit). | |
| So for example the controller drivers won't buffer | |
| two single byte writes into a single two-byte USB IN packet, | |
| although gadget drivers may do so when they implement | |
| protocols where packet boundaries (and "short packets") | |
| are not significant. | |
| </para> | |
| <sect1 id="lifecycle"><title>Driver Life Cycle</title> | |
| <para>Gadget drivers make endpoint I/O requests to hardware without | |
| needing to know many details of the hardware, but driver | |
| setup/configuration code needs to handle some differences. | |
| Use the API like this: | |
| </para> | |
| <orderedlist numeration='arabic'> | |
| <listitem><para>Register a driver for the particular device side | |
| usb controller hardware, | |
| such as the net2280 on PCI (USB 2.0), | |
| sa11x0 or pxa25x as found in Linux PDAs, | |
| and so on. | |
| At this point the device is logically in the USB ch9 initial state | |
| ("attached"), drawing no power and not usable | |
| (since it does not yet support enumeration). | |
| Any host should not see the device, since it's not | |
| activated the data line pullup used by the host to | |
| detect a device, even if VBUS power is available. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>Register a gadget driver that implements some higher level | |
| device function. That will then bind() to a usb_gadget, which | |
| activates the data line pullup sometime after detecting VBUS. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>The hardware driver can now start enumerating. | |
| The steps it handles are to accept USB power and set_address requests. | |
| Other steps are handled by the gadget driver. | |
| If the gadget driver module is unloaded before the host starts to | |
| enumerate, steps before step 7 are skipped. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>The gadget driver's setup() call returns usb descriptors, | |
| based both on what the bus interface hardware provides and on the | |
| functionality being implemented. | |
| That can involve alternate settings or configurations, | |
| unless the hardware prevents such operation. | |
| For OTG devices, each configuration descriptor includes | |
| an OTG descriptor. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>The gadget driver handles the last step of enumeration, | |
| when the USB host issues a set_configuration call. | |
| It enables all endpoints used in that configuration, | |
| with all interfaces in their default settings. | |
| That involves using a list of the hardware's endpoints, enabling each | |
| endpoint according to its descriptor. | |
| It may also involve using <function>usb_gadget_vbus_draw</function> | |
| to let more power be drawn from VBUS, as allowed by that configuration. | |
| For OTG devices, setting a configuration may also involve reporting | |
| HNP capabilities through a user interface. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>Do real work and perform data transfers, possibly involving | |
| changes to interface settings or switching to new configurations, until the | |
| device is disconnect()ed from the host. | |
| Queue any number of transfer requests to each endpoint. | |
| It may be suspended and resumed several times before being disconnected. | |
| On disconnect, the drivers go back to step 3 (above). | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>When the gadget driver module is being unloaded, | |
| the driver unbind() callback is issued. That lets the controller | |
| driver be unloaded. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| </orderedlist> | |
| <para>Drivers will normally be arranged so that just loading the | |
| gadget driver module (or statically linking it into a Linux kernel) | |
| allows the peripheral device to be enumerated, but some drivers | |
| will defer enumeration until some higher level component (like | |
| a user mode daemon) enables it. | |
| Note that at this lowest level there are no policies about how | |
| ep0 configuration logic is implemented, | |
| except that it should obey USB specifications. | |
| Such issues are in the domain of gadget drivers, | |
| including knowing about implementation constraints | |
| imposed by some USB controllers | |
| or understanding that composite devices might happen to | |
| be built by integrating reusable components. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Note that the lifecycle above can be slightly different | |
| for OTG devices. | |
| Other than providing an additional OTG descriptor in each | |
| configuration, only the HNP-related differences are particularly | |
| visible to driver code. | |
| They involve reporting requirements during the SET_CONFIGURATION | |
| request, and the option to invoke HNP during some suspend callbacks. | |
| Also, SRP changes the semantics of | |
| <function>usb_gadget_wakeup</function> | |
| slightly. | |
| </para> | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1 id="ch9"><title>USB 2.0 Chapter 9 Types and Constants</title> | |
| <para>Gadget drivers | |
| rely on common USB structures and constants | |
| defined in the | |
| <filename><linux/usb/ch9.h></filename> | |
| header file, which is standard in Linux 2.6 kernels. | |
| These are the same types and constants used by host | |
| side drivers (and usbcore). | |
| </para> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/usb/ch9.h | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1 id="core"><title>Core Objects and Methods</title> | |
| <para>These are declared in | |
| <filename><linux/usb/gadget.h></filename>, | |
| and are used by gadget drivers to interact with | |
| USB peripheral controller drivers. | |
| </para> | |
| <!-- yeech, this is ugly in nsgmls PDF output. | |
| the PDF bookmark and refentry output nesting is wrong, | |
| and the member/argument documentation indents ugly. | |
| plus something (docproc?) adds whitespace before the | |
| descriptive paragraph text, so it can't line up right | |
| unless the explanations are trivial. | |
| --> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/usb/gadget.h | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1 id="utils"><title>Optional Utilities</title> | |
| <para>The core API is sufficient for writing a USB Gadget Driver, | |
| but some optional utilities are provided to simplify common tasks. | |
| These utilities include endpoint autoconfiguration. | |
| </para> | |
| !Edrivers/usb/gadget/usbstring.c | |
| !Edrivers/usb/gadget/config.c | |
| <!-- !Edrivers/usb/gadget/epautoconf.c --> | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1 id="composite"><title>Composite Device Framework</title> | |
| <para>The core API is sufficient for writing drivers for composite | |
| USB devices (with more than one function in a given configuration), | |
| and also multi-configuration devices (also more than one function, | |
| but not necessarily sharing a given configuration). | |
| There is however an optional framework which makes it easier to | |
| reuse and combine functions. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Devices using this framework provide a <emphasis>struct | |
| usb_composite_driver</emphasis>, which in turn provides one or | |
| more <emphasis>struct usb_configuration</emphasis> instances. | |
| Each such configuration includes at least one | |
| <emphasis>struct usb_function</emphasis>, which packages a user | |
| visible role such as "network link" or "mass storage device". | |
| Management functions may also exist, such as "Device Firmware | |
| Upgrade". | |
| </para> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/usb/composite.h | |
| !Edrivers/usb/gadget/composite.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1 id="functions"><title>Composite Device Functions</title> | |
| <para>At this writing, a few of the current gadget drivers have | |
| been converted to this framework. | |
| Near-term plans include converting all of them, except for "gadgetfs". | |
| </para> | |
| !Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_acm.c | |
| !Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_ecm.c | |
| !Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_subset.c | |
| !Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_obex.c | |
| !Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_serial.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="controllers"><title>Peripheral Controller Drivers</title> | |
| <para>The first hardware supporting this API was the NetChip 2280 | |
| controller, which supports USB 2.0 high speed and is based on PCI. | |
| This is the <filename>net2280</filename> driver module. | |
| The driver supports Linux kernel versions 2.4 and 2.6; | |
| contact NetChip Technologies for development boards and product | |
| information. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Other hardware working in the "gadget" framework includes: | |
| Intel's PXA 25x and IXP42x series processors | |
| (<filename>pxa2xx_udc</filename>), | |
| Toshiba TC86c001 "Goku-S" (<filename>goku_udc</filename>), | |
| Renesas SH7705/7727 (<filename>sh_udc</filename>), | |
| MediaQ 11xx (<filename>mq11xx_udc</filename>), | |
| Hynix HMS30C7202 (<filename>h7202_udc</filename>), | |
| National 9303/4 (<filename>n9604_udc</filename>), | |
| Texas Instruments OMAP (<filename>omap_udc</filename>), | |
| Sharp LH7A40x (<filename>lh7a40x_udc</filename>), | |
| and more. | |
| Most of those are full speed controllers. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>At this writing, there are people at work on drivers in | |
| this framework for several other USB device controllers, | |
| with plans to make many of them be widely available. | |
| </para> | |
| <!-- !Edrivers/usb/gadget/net2280.c --> | |
| <para>A partial USB simulator, | |
| the <filename>dummy_hcd</filename> driver, is available. | |
| It can act like a net2280, a pxa25x, or an sa11x0 in terms | |
| of available endpoints and device speeds; and it simulates | |
| control, bulk, and to some extent interrupt transfers. | |
| That lets you develop some parts of a gadget driver on a normal PC, | |
| without any special hardware, and perhaps with the assistance | |
| of tools such as GDB running with User Mode Linux. | |
| At least one person has expressed interest in adapting that | |
| approach, hooking it up to a simulator for a microcontroller. | |
| Such simulators can help debug subsystems where the runtime hardware | |
| is unfriendly to software development, or is not yet available. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Support for other controllers is expected to be developed | |
| and contributed | |
| over time, as this driver framework evolves. | |
| </para> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="gadget"><title>Gadget Drivers</title> | |
| <para>In addition to <emphasis>Gadget Zero</emphasis> | |
| (used primarily for testing and development with drivers | |
| for usb controller hardware), other gadget drivers exist. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>There's an <emphasis>ethernet</emphasis> gadget | |
| driver, which implements one of the most useful | |
| <emphasis>Communications Device Class</emphasis> (CDC) models. | |
| One of the standards for cable modem interoperability even | |
| specifies the use of this ethernet model as one of two | |
| mandatory options. | |
| Gadgets using this code look to a USB host as if they're | |
| an Ethernet adapter. | |
| It provides access to a network where the gadget's CPU is one host, | |
| which could easily be bridging, routing, or firewalling | |
| access to other networks. | |
| Since some hardware can't fully implement the CDC Ethernet | |
| requirements, this driver also implements a "good parts only" | |
| subset of CDC Ethernet. | |
| (That subset doesn't advertise itself as CDC Ethernet, | |
| to avoid creating problems.) | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Support for Microsoft's <emphasis>RNDIS</emphasis> | |
| protocol has been contributed by Pengutronix and Auerswald GmbH. | |
| This is like CDC Ethernet, but it runs on more slightly USB hardware | |
| (but less than the CDC subset). | |
| However, its main claim to fame is being able to connect directly to | |
| recent versions of Windows, using drivers that Microsoft bundles | |
| and supports, making it much simpler to network with Windows. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>There is also support for user mode gadget drivers, | |
| using <emphasis>gadgetfs</emphasis>. | |
| This provides a <emphasis>User Mode API</emphasis> that presents | |
| each endpoint as a single file descriptor. I/O is done using | |
| normal <emphasis>read()</emphasis> and <emphasis>read()</emphasis> calls. | |
| Familiar tools like GDB and pthreads can be used to | |
| develop and debug user mode drivers, so that once a robust | |
| controller driver is available many applications for it | |
| won't require new kernel mode software. | |
| Linux 2.6 <emphasis>Async I/O (AIO)</emphasis> | |
| support is available, so that user mode software | |
| can stream data with only slightly more overhead | |
| than a kernel driver. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>There's a USB Mass Storage class driver, which provides | |
| a different solution for interoperability with systems such | |
| as MS-Windows and MacOS. | |
| That <emphasis>File-backed Storage</emphasis> driver uses a | |
| file or block device as backing store for a drive, | |
| like the <filename>loop</filename> driver. | |
| The USB host uses the BBB, CB, or CBI versions of the mass | |
| storage class specification, using transparent SCSI commands | |
| to access the data from the backing store. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>There's a "serial line" driver, useful for TTY style | |
| operation over USB. | |
| The latest version of that driver supports CDC ACM style | |
| operation, like a USB modem, and so on most hardware it can | |
| interoperate easily with MS-Windows. | |
| One interesting use of that driver is in boot firmware (like a BIOS), | |
| which can sometimes use that model with very small systems without | |
| real serial lines. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Support for other kinds of gadget is expected to | |
| be developed and contributed | |
| over time, as this driver framework evolves. | |
| </para> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="otg"><title>USB On-The-GO (OTG)</title> | |
| <para>USB OTG support on Linux 2.6 was initially developed | |
| by Texas Instruments for | |
| <ulink url="http://www.omap.com">OMAP</ulink> 16xx and 17xx | |
| series processors. | |
| Other OTG systems should work in similar ways, but the | |
| hardware level details could be very different. | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Systems need specialized hardware support to implement OTG, | |
| notably including a special <emphasis>Mini-AB</emphasis> jack | |
| and associated transciever to support <emphasis>Dual-Role</emphasis> | |
| operation: | |
| they can act either as a host, using the standard | |
| Linux-USB host side driver stack, | |
| or as a peripheral, using this "gadget" framework. | |
| To do that, the system software relies on small additions | |
| to those programming interfaces, | |
| and on a new internal component (here called an "OTG Controller") | |
| affecting which driver stack connects to the OTG port. | |
| In each role, the system can re-use the existing pool of | |
| hardware-neutral drivers, layered on top of the controller | |
| driver interfaces (<emphasis>usb_bus</emphasis> or | |
| <emphasis>usb_gadget</emphasis>). | |
| Such drivers need at most minor changes, and most of the calls | |
| added to support OTG can also benefit non-OTG products. | |
| </para> | |
| <itemizedlist> | |
| <listitem><para>Gadget drivers test the <emphasis>is_otg</emphasis> | |
| flag, and use it to determine whether or not to include | |
| an OTG descriptor in each of their configurations. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>Gadget drivers may need changes to support the | |
| two new OTG protocols, exposed in new gadget attributes | |
| such as <emphasis>b_hnp_enable</emphasis> flag. | |
| HNP support should be reported through a user interface | |
| (two LEDs could suffice), and is triggered in some cases | |
| when the host suspends the peripheral. | |
| SRP support can be user-initiated just like remote wakeup, | |
| probably by pressing the same button. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>On the host side, USB device drivers need | |
| to be taught to trigger HNP at appropriate moments, using | |
| <function>usb_suspend_device()</function>. | |
| That also conserves battery power, which is useful even | |
| for non-OTG configurations. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem><para>Also on the host side, a driver must support the | |
| OTG "Targeted Peripheral List". That's just a whitelist, | |
| used to reject peripherals not supported with a given | |
| Linux OTG host. | |
| <emphasis>This whitelist is product-specific; | |
| each product must modify <filename>otg_whitelist.h</filename> | |
| to match its interoperability specification. | |
| </emphasis> | |
| </para> | |
| <para>Non-OTG Linux hosts, like PCs and workstations, | |
| normally have some solution for adding drivers, so that | |
| peripherals that aren't recognized can eventually be supported. | |
| That approach is unreasonable for consumer products that may | |
| never have their firmware upgraded, and where it's usually | |
| unrealistic to expect traditional PC/workstation/server kinds | |
| of support model to work. | |
| For example, it's often impractical to change device firmware | |
| once the product has been distributed, so driver bugs can't | |
| normally be fixed if they're found after shipment. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| </itemizedlist> | |
| <para> | |
| Additional changes are needed below those hardware-neutral | |
| <emphasis>usb_bus</emphasis> and <emphasis>usb_gadget</emphasis> | |
| driver interfaces; those aren't discussed here in any detail. | |
| Those affect the hardware-specific code for each USB Host or Peripheral | |
| controller, and how the HCD initializes (since OTG can be active only | |
| on a single port). | |
| They also involve what may be called an <emphasis>OTG Controller | |
| Driver</emphasis>, managing the OTG transceiver and the OTG state | |
| machine logic as well as much of the root hub behavior for the | |
| OTG port. | |
| The OTG controller driver needs to activate and deactivate USB | |
| controllers depending on the relevant device role. | |
| Some related changes were needed inside usbcore, so that it | |
| can identify OTG-capable devices and respond appropriately | |
| to HNP or SRP protocols. | |
| </para> | |
| </chapter> | |
| </book> | |
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