WARNING - OLD ARCHIVES

This is an archived copy of the Xen.org mailing list, which we have preserved to ensure that existing links to archives are not broken. The live archive, which contains the latest emails, can be found at http://lists.xen.org/
   
 
 
Xen 
 
Home Products Support Community News
 
   
 

xen-users

[Xen-users] How best to connect USB devices to a DOMU

To: "xen ml" <xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Xen-users] How best to connect USB devices to a DOMU
From: Derek <xen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 19:40:29 -0600
Delivery-date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 18:38:39 -0700
Dkim-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:x-google-sender-auth; b=Bmp58/cAX8gaYlUuyYsBGllVkfh0KjGS+MbTP4KVsErA1Q2A+wUk4EPACJHvn88c/aok8Lsr4yEomZUX3DwtvriGYNGzw990gu4lcU0RmMhd1HIJSi3MX0T1raVnHgPyEdXI3rJ4LqqrHwc8gGpPZDc1qWZ6fT4mE5VWKGW0kYM=
Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:x-google-sender-auth; b=BIRS96h8zhnbYAvGdPfeLLp7OerzsfrmGVo282NvIKClQ62hGZKVeGi1W/5OV/CGKs5VQNY2vGks35LKsUvk7+HaZdh4h+CQHcRjzuIB9c80Dnlk7JDktSzRuoAltygxyiZTmIyIsyXOU6RJIYT43lEGO+M8oqADPde7yv76VRk=
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
List-help: <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help>
List-id: Xen user discussion <xen-users.lists.xensource.com>
List-post: <mailto:xen-users@lists.xensource.com>
List-subscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
Sender: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Folks,

Interested in opinions on the best way to do this, and especially
tales of success or failure so I don't have to repeat someone else's
mistake.

I want a DomU (winxp, hvm) to be able to access a few select USB
devices.  No other DomU or Dom0 will need to share them.  And, I
should point out that some of these are devices for which a Linux
driver is either unavailable or unsuited for my purposes, so I really
do need to run the Windows driver and have it "think" it's talking
direct to the USB.

The sort of devices I am talking about include:  A bluetooth adaptor,
an ipod, an ipaq PDA, and an Actiontek "Internet Phone Wizard".

Posibilities that I have considered:

1.  Use USB passthrough, so DomU sees a virtualized device.  I've
tried this, using the qemu "usb_add device" command.  No luck, so far.
My DomU freezes when I try it, and I don't know why.  Also, googling
around, I've yet to see any success story with this method, so I don't
think it works under Xen.

2.  Use PCI passthrough, so DomU sees an entire PCI device.  In this
case, the PCI device would be a USB adaptor, and thus WinXP will see
all devices and hubs under that adaptor.  I have yet to try this
method, wondering if anyone has done so with success?

3.  Using USB-over-IP or some similar network tunneling.  So far I've
found one software-only product for this
(http://www.usb-over-network.com/) and three hardware products
(http://www.belkin.com/networkusbhub/ &
http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/facet.jspx?k=E5813A &
http://www.digi.com/products/usb/anywhereusb.jsp).  I can't use the
software-only product, because it requires a windows computer as host,
with access to the native USB hardware.  I have no such computer
available.  The hardware products seem promising, but the Agilent and
Digi ones are very expensive, and the Belkin one is not yet available,
as far as I can tell.

Anyway, if any folks on this list have solved this problem in any of
the above ways -- or others I haven't thought of -- please share the
details with me.

Many thanks,
Derek.

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • [Xen-users] How best to connect USB devices to a DOMU, Derek <=