Category:How to - usb

USBNet with Overo

The OTG USB port on the Overo expansion boards support USB networking. To enable this, the OTG port needs to be configured as a USB peripheral or gadget. The default kernels from Gumstix have the OTG port configured to act as a USB host.

The procedure for changing the configuration requires rebuilding your kernel, so you should first be comfortable with setting up a build environment and building images for your Overo.

The steps below assume a recent snapshot of the gumstix-oe git tree. Two recent changes in particular have simplified the process.

1. Kernel 2.6.31 is now the default

2. The linux-omap3_2.6.31.bb recipe now has variable to setup the OTG port in the kernel config file.

To get started, first edit the recipe file ${OVEROTOP}/org.openembedded.dev/recipes/linux/linux-omap3_2.6.31.bb

Change the line

MUSB_MODE ?= "host"

to

MUSB_MODE ?= "peripheral"  

or "otg".

Next rebuild the kernel and rootfs.

cd ${OVEROTOP}
bitbake -c clean linux-omap3-2.6.31
bitbake -c rebuild linux-omap3-2.6.31

And then rebuild your image.

bitbake omap3-console-image    

Change omap3-console-image to whatever image you use.

Once you have booted the new system, you still need to load the g_ether driver since it was built as a module.

You can add g_ether to /etc/modules if you always want it to load at boot.

root@overo# modbprobe g_ether
g_ether gadget: using random self ethernet address
g_ether gadget: using random host ethernet address
usb0: MAC d6:2c:8f:d9:51:32
usb0: HOST MAC f2:99:dc:4c:cb:7a
g_ether gadget: Ethernet Gadget, version: Memorial Day 2008
g_ether gadget: g_ether ready

root@overo:~# ifconfig -a
lo      Link encap:Local Loopback
        inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
        inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
        UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
        RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
        TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
        RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

usb0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr D6:2C:8F:D9:51:32
        BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
        RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
        TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
        RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Configure the usb0 interface the way you would any other.

For example

root@overo:~# ifconfig usb0 192.168.20.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

If you then plug the usb OTG cable into a host computer ready for usb networking you'll get a console message

g_ether gadget: high speed config #1: CDC Ethernet (ECM)

The rest is all standard Linux networking.