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2 Linux USB gadget configured through configfs
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14 A USB Linux Gadget is a device which has a UDC (USB Device Controller) and can
15 be connected to a USB Host to extend it with additional functions like a serial
16 port or a mass storage capability.
18 A gadget is seen by its host as a set of configurations, each of which contains
19 a number of interfaces which, from the gadget's perspective, are known as
20 functions, each function representing e.g. a serial connection or a SCSI disk.
22 Linux provides a number of functions for gadgets to use.
24 Creating a gadget means deciding what configurations there will be
25 and which functions each configuration will provide.
27 Configfs (please see `Documentation/filesystems/configfs/*`) lends itself nicely
28 for the purpose of telling the kernel about the above mentioned decision.
29 This document is about how to do it.
31 It also describes how configfs integration into gadget is designed.
39 In order for this to work configfs must be available, so CONFIGFS_FS must be
40 'y' or 'm' in .config. As of this writing USB_LIBCOMPOSITE selects CONFIGFS_FS.
48 (The original post describing the first function
49 made available through configfs can be seen here:
50 http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-usb/msg76388.html)
54 $ modprobe libcomposite
55 $ mount none $CONFIGFS_HOME -t configfs
57 where CONFIGFS_HOME is the mount point for configfs
59 1. Creating the gadgets
60 -----------------------
62 For each gadget to be created its corresponding directory must be created::
64 $ mkdir $CONFIGFS_HOME/usb_gadget/<gadget name>
68 $ mkdir $CONFIGFS_HOME/usb_gadget/g1
74 $ cd $CONFIGFS_HOME/usb_gadget/g1
76 Each gadget needs to have its vendor id <VID> and product id <PID> specified::
78 $ echo <VID> > idVendor
79 $ echo <PID> > idProduct
81 A gadget also needs its serial number, manufacturer and product strings.
82 In order to have a place to store them, a strings subdirectory must be created
83 for each language, e.g.::
87 Then the strings can be specified::
89 $ echo <serial number> > strings/0x409/serialnumber
90 $ echo <manufacturer> > strings/0x409/manufacturer
91 $ echo <product> > strings/0x409/product
93 2. Creating the configurations
94 ------------------------------
96 Each gadget will consist of a number of configurations, their corresponding
97 directories must be created:
99 $ mkdir configs/<name>.<number>
101 where <name> can be any string which is legal in a filesystem and the
102 <number> is the configuration's number, e.g.::
110 Each configuration also needs its strings, so a subdirectory must be created
111 for each language, e.g.::
113 $ mkdir configs/c.1/strings/0x409
115 Then the configuration string can be specified::
117 $ echo <configuration> > configs/c.1/strings/0x409/configuration
119 Some attributes can also be set for a configuration, e.g.::
121 $ echo 120 > configs/c.1/MaxPower
123 3. Creating the functions
124 -------------------------
126 The gadget will provide some functions, for each function its corresponding
127 directory must be created::
129 $ mkdir functions/<name>.<instance name>
131 where <name> corresponds to one of allowed function names and instance name
132 is an arbitrary string allowed in a filesystem, e.g.::
134 $ mkdir functions/ncm.usb0 # usb_f_ncm.ko gets loaded with request_module()
140 Each function provides its specific set of attributes, with either read-only
141 or read-write access. Where applicable they need to be written to as
143 Please refer to Documentation/ABI/*/configfs-usb-gadget* for more information.
145 4. Associating the functions with their configurations
146 ------------------------------------------------------
148 At this moment a number of gadgets is created, each of which has a number of
149 configurations specified and a number of functions available. What remains
150 is specifying which function is available in which configuration (the same
151 function can be used in multiple configurations). This is achieved with
152 creating symbolic links::
154 $ ln -s functions/<name>.<instance name> configs/<name>.<number>
158 $ ln -s functions/ncm.usb0 configs/c.1
164 5. Enabling the gadget
165 ----------------------
167 All the above steps serve the purpose of composing the gadget of
168 configurations and functions.
170 An example directory structure might look like this::
175 ./strings/0x409/serialnumber
176 ./strings/0x409/product
177 ./strings/0x409/manufacturer
180 ./configs/c.1/ncm.usb0 -> ../../../../usb_gadget/g1/functions/ncm.usb0
181 ./configs/c.1/strings
182 ./configs/c.1/strings/0x409
183 ./configs/c.1/strings/0x409/configuration
184 ./configs/c.1/bmAttributes
185 ./configs/c.1/MaxPower
188 ./functions/ncm.usb0/ifname
189 ./functions/ncm.usb0/qmult
190 ./functions/ncm.usb0/host_addr
191 ./functions/ncm.usb0/dev_addr
203 Such a gadget must be finally enabled so that the USB host can enumerate it.
205 In order to enable the gadget it must be bound to a UDC (USB Device
208 $ echo <udc name> > UDC
210 where <udc name> is one of those found in /sys/class/udc/*
213 $ echo s3c-hsotg > UDC
216 6. Disabling the gadget
217 -----------------------
226 Remove functions from configurations::
228 $ rm configs/<config name>.<number>/<function>
230 where <config name>.<number> specify the configuration and <function> is
231 a symlink to a function being removed from the configuration, e.g.::
233 $ rm configs/c.1/ncm.usb0
239 Remove strings directories in configurations:
241 $ rmdir configs/<config name>.<number>/strings/<lang>
245 $ rmdir configs/c.1/strings/0x409
251 and remove the configurations::
253 $ rmdir configs/<config name>.<number>
263 Remove functions (function modules are not unloaded, though):
265 $ rmdir functions/<name>.<instance name>
269 $ rmdir functions/ncm.usb0
275 Remove strings directories in the gadget::
277 $ rmdir strings/<lang>
281 $ rmdir strings/0x409
283 and finally remove the gadget::
286 $ rmdir <gadget name>
295 Implementation design
296 =====================
298 Below the idea of how configfs works is presented.
299 In configfs there are items and groups, both represented as directories.
300 The difference between an item and a group is that a group can contain
301 other groups. In the picture below only an item is shown.
302 Both items and groups can have attributes, which are represented as files.
303 The user can create and remove directories, but cannot remove files,
304 which can be read-only or read-write, depending on what they represent.
306 The filesystem part of configfs operates on config_items/groups and
307 configfs_attributes which are generic and of the same type for all
308 configured elements. However, they are embedded in usage-specific
309 larger structures. In the picture below there is a "cs" which contains
310 a config_item and an "sa" which contains a configfs_attribute.
312 The filesystem view would be like this::
323 Whenever a user reads/writes the "sa" file, a function is called
324 which accepts a struct config_item and a struct configfs_attribute.
325 In the said function the "cs" and "sa" are retrieved using the well
326 known container_of technique and an appropriate sa's function (show or
327 store) is called and passed the "cs" and a character buffer. The "show"
328 is for displaying the file's contents (copy data from the cs to the
329 buffer), while the "store" is for modifying the file's contents (copy data
330 from the buffer to the cs), but it is up to the implementer of the
331 two functions to decide what they actually do.
335 typedef struct configured_structure cs;
336 typedef struct specific_attribute sa;
339 +----------------------------------+
340 cs | (*show)(cs *, buffer); |
341 +-----------------+ | (*store)(cs *, buffer, length); |
343 | +-------------+ | | +------------------+ |
344 | | struct |-|----|------>|struct | |
345 | | config_item | | | |configfs_attribute| |
346 | +-------------+ | | +------------------+ |
347 | | +----------------------------------+
350 +-----------------+ .
352 The file names are decided by the config item/group designer, while
353 the directories in general can be named at will. A group can have
354 a number of its default sub-groups created automatically.
356 For more information on configfs please see
357 `Documentation/filesystems/configfs/*`.
359 The concepts described above translate to USB gadgets like this:
361 1. A gadget has its config group, which has some attributes (idVendor,
362 idProduct etc) and default sub-groups (configs, functions, strings).
363 Writing to the attributes causes the information to be stored in
364 appropriate locations. In the configs, functions and strings sub-groups
365 a user can create their sub-groups to represent configurations, functions,
366 and groups of strings in a given language.
368 2. The user creates configurations and functions, in the configurations
369 creates symbolic links to functions. This information is used when the
370 gadget's UDC attribute is written to, which means binding the gadget
371 to the UDC. The code in drivers/usb/gadget/configfs.c iterates over
372 all configurations, and in each configuration it iterates over all
373 functions and binds them. This way the whole gadget is bound.
375 3. The file drivers/usb/gadget/configfs.c contains code for
377 - gadget's config_group
378 - gadget's default groups (configs, functions, strings)
379 - associating functions with configurations (symlinks)
381 4. Each USB function naturally has its own view of what it wants
382 configured, so config_groups for particular functions are defined
383 in the functions implementation files drivers/usb/gadget/f_*.c.
385 5. Function's code is written in such a way that it uses
387 usb_get_function_instance(), which, in turn, calls request_module.
388 So, provided that modprobe works, modules for particular functions
389 are loaded automatically. Please note that the converse is not true:
390 after a gadget is disabled and torn down, the modules remain loaded.