Re: Fwd: Composite USB devices

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007, The Almighty Pegasus Epsilon wrote:

> On 9/30/07, Alan Stern <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Strictly speaking, "character" and "block" are properties of the
> > driver, not of the device.  It's perfectly possible to have both a
> > character driver and a block driver for the same device (although they
> > better not both be loaded at the same time!).
> >
> > Anyway, only SCSI devices get sg nodes; HID devices don't.  In thie
> > case sg0 refers to the mass-storage interface of the WD MyBook device,
> > not the HID interface.  (The HID interface corresponds to the
> > /class/input/input1 device, as you can see in the log.)  sg1 refers to
> > the other, working USB device.  But this isn't particularly helpful for
> > solving your main problem.
> 
> I was under the impression that sg meant SCSI generic, ie, any kind of
> device you'd like to hook to a SCSI bus.

That's right.

> For example, I'm pretty sure
> there are SCSI keyboards, which would absolutely be a character device
> by nature, not just by driver.

True.  Although if somebody wanted to, they _could_ write a block
device driver for a keyboard.  It wouldn't be very useful.

> > But only the other device worked with the SCSI disk driver.  It's
> > undoubtedly because the other device (sg1) reports itself as type 0 =
> > disk drive and the WD device (sg0) reports itself as type 13 =
> > enclosure -- I don't know what that's supposed to mean.  Whatever it
> > is, the SCSI disk driver doesn't accept it.
> >
> > Now I don't know if this will work or if it's the right thing to do,
> > but you can try it.  Edit the kernel source file drivers/scsi/sd.c.
> > Near the beginning is a line saying
> >
> > MODULE_ALIAS_SCSI_DEVICE(TYPE_DISK);
> >
> > You can add a line saying
> >
> > MODULE_ALIAS_SCSI_DEVICE(TYPE_ENCLOSURE);
> >
> > Also, at the start of the sd_probe() function is this line:
> >
> >         if (sdp->type != TYPE_DISK && sdp->type != TYPE_MOD && sdp->type != TYPE_RBC)
> >
> > You should add into that an extra test:
> >
> >         if (sdp->type != TYPE_DISK && sdp->type != TYPE_MOD && sdp->type != TYPE_RBC
> >                         && sdp->type != TYPE_ENCLOSURE)
> >
> > That will allow the SCSI disk driver to recognize the WD device.
> > Whether it will end up working correctly is a different question...
> >
> > Alan Stern
> 
> An interesting idea, for the hell of it I tried it. It did not work,
> it simply created a "block" device node that "cat /dev/sda" (yes, it
> usurped the old sda, which is now sdb) gives no output for. Correct me
> if I'm wrong, but if it were working, it should dump a terabyte of
> random gibberish to my screen.

Yes.  Well maybe not random gibberish, but the idea is right.

> If you check the output from /proc/bus/usb/devices, it very clearly
> shows 1) the hub, 2) the external enclosure that works, and 3) the one
> that doesn't, but the one that doesn't work has two "I" lines, while
> everything else has only one:
> 
> I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
> 
> I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
> I:* If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=usbhid
> 
> I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
> 
> the Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=usbhid gets registered fine, and with the
> patch, it makes a corresponding (but non-functional) block node to go
> with it. but the Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage never makes it
> through to my /dev and that's exactly the problem.

No, you are confused.  First, you have this hangup regarding the extra
HID interface.  The fact is, it doesn't affect the mass-storage aspect
of the device at all.  The two are quite independent.

Second, the non-functional block node you saw with the patch
corresponds to interface 0, the "enclosure" driven by usb-storage --
not to the HID interface.  This probably would be easy to see from
the dmesg log, but you failed to include it.

> I think what's missing is another layer of abstraction. Are other
> Enclosures properly handled by linux-usb (as opposed to the obviously
> functional Direct-Access)?

"Enclosure" is a SCSI concept; it has nothing to do with usb-storage.  
The plain truth is that usb-storage is working fine; the difficulty you 
are encountering lies in the SCSI stack, not in the USB stack.

> Possibly of interest is the result of the patch you suggested:
> 
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] READ CAPACITY failed
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=0x08
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : 0x5 [current]
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] ASC=0x20 ASCQ=0x0
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Asking for cache data failed
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
> 
> The old drive works the same, as far as I can tell, but other than it
> being moved down to sdb:
> 
> sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
> sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
> sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 27 00 00 00
> sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
> sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
> sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
> sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 27 00 00 00
> sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through

Right.  This proves that my suggestion wasn't the right thing to do.

> Solved:
> Turn on CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN
> 
> Presto, works.

Proving my point that this was a SCSI problem, not a USB problem.

> Thanks to Matthew Dharm (the guy that maintains the usb goodness) for
> helping me work it out off-list.

Could you summarize your off-list discussion for the benefit of the
rest of us?

Alan Stern


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