USB Directconnect cable - unable to get it to work

Fri Mar 4 06:14:11 UTC 2011

Gooday all!

I have a interesting problem here, hoping someone here might be able to help me.

Please note that all of my command output is at the bottom of this post.

I recently aquired a "Vantec ezShare pro Adapter" [1] which is a USB
Directconnect cable. I want to connect the cable to 2 ubuntu 10.10
machines.

It has two modes of operation. The default is when it is only plugged
into 1 machine, it will be used as a USB Hub. The other mode (which
btw is the one I am intersted in) is when it is plugged into 2
machines, then it adds another usb device [see footnotes].

Trying to do a google on how to connect the thing to linux gives me a
vast nothingness. I started up a test Windows XP virtualbox to see
what happens, and under windows it starts an application that takes
care of everything. While I was testing it under the Windows XP
virtualbox, I also did a usb packet-dump to see if I can figure it
out, but unfortunately I can only speak network protocols, not usb :(

I was actually hoping that I can use this device as a "network" link
between the two devices, so I do not have to do my synergy'ing [2]
over a wireless connection the whole time [which as you can guess is
VERY slow]

Hoping someone might be able to help me in this regard.

Thank you in advance
Ian

==========FOOTNOTES=========

[1] http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/386
[2] http://synergy-foss.org/

If you want, I can send you the packetsniff I made. when pluggin it
into the Windows XP virtualbox.

Warning, technical details follows. :)
First I start by plugging it into machine 1 (which we will call Sonny
for the sake of this conversation)
======
ian at Sonny:~$ tail /var/log/syslog
Mar  4 07:39:01 Sonny CRON[7485]: (root) CMD (  [ -x
/usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime ] && [ -d /var/lib/php5 ] && find
/var/lib/php5/ -type f -cmin +$(/usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime) -print0 |
xargs -n 200 -r -0 rm)
Mar  4 07:49:19 Sonny kernel: [242616.944990] usb 2-1: USB disconnect,
address 28
Mar  4 07:49:38 Sonny kernel: [242636.424078] usb 2-1: new high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 32
Mar  4 07:49:38 Sonny kernel: [242636.561516] hub 2-1:1.0: USB hub found
Mar  4 07:49:38 Sonny kernel: [242636.561897] hub 2-1:1.0: 4 ports detected

ian at Sonny:~$ dmesg | tail -n 5
[241003.844753] EXT4-fs (sdb2): mounted filesystem with ordered data
mode. Opts: (null)
[242616.944990] usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 28
[242636.424078] usb 2-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 32
[242636.561516] hub 2-1:1.0: USB hub found
[242636.561897] hub 2-1:1.0: 4 ports detected

ian at Sonny:~$ lsusb
Bus 007 Device 005: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd
Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 032: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 002 Device 031: ID 0bc2:5021 Seagate RSS LLC
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 05c8:0100 Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd
(Foxlink)
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187B
Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

ian at Sonny:~$ sudo lsusb -s 002:32 -v
[sudo] password for ian:
http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/575324/

Now moving along I plug it into machine 2 which we will call Viki for
the sake of this discussion.

ian at Sonny:~$ tail /var/log/syslog
Mar  4 07:49:38 Sonny kernel: [242636.561516] hub 2-1:1.0: USB hub found
Mar  4 07:49:38 Sonny kernel: [242636.561897] hub 2-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
Mar  4 07:57:12 Sonny kernel: [243089.848425] usb 2-1.1: new high
speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 33
Mar  4 07:57:12 Sonny kernel: [243089.943432] scsi33 : usb-storage 2-1.1:1.0
Mar  4 07:57:13 Sonny kernel: [243090.943360] scsi 33:0:0:0: CD-ROM
       VANTEC   ezSHARE          2.0  PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Mar  4 07:57:13 Sonny kernel: [243090.961424] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive:
126x/126x writer cd/rw xa/form2 tray
Mar  4 07:57:13 Sonny kernel: [243090.963349] sr 33:0:0:0: Attached
scsi CD-ROM sr1
Mar  4 07:57:13 Sonny kernel: [243090.966575] sr 33:0:0:0: Attached
scsi generic sg3 type 5
Mar  4 07:57:16 Sonny kernel: [243094.301112] ISO 9660 Extensions:
Microsoft Joliet Level 3
Mar  4 07:57:16 Sonny kernel: [243094.309121] ISOFS: changing to secondary root

ian at Viki:~$ tail /var/log/syslog
Mar  4 07:57:15 Viki kernel: [60346.792048] usb 1-8: new high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 11
Mar  4 07:57:15 Viki kernel: [60346.928461] scsi7 : usb-storage 1-8:1.0
Mar  4 07:57:16 Viki kernel: [60347.931052] scsi 7:0:0:0: CD-ROM
    VANTEC   ezSHARE          2.0  PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Mar  4 07:57:16 Viki kernel: [60347.940913] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive:
126x/126x writer cd/rw xa/form2 tray
Mar  4 07:57:16 Viki kernel: [60347.943378] sr 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1
Mar  4 07:57:16 Viki kernel: [60347.943690] sr 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi
generic sg2 type 5
Mar  4 07:57:21 Viki kernel: [60352.682212] ISO 9660 Extensions:
Microsoft Joliet Level 3
Mar  4 07:57:21 Viki kernel: [60352.690469] ISOFS: changing to secondary root

ian at Sonny:~$ lsusb
Bus 007 Device 005: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd
Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 033: ID 0ea0:2108 Ours Technology, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 032: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 002 Device 031: ID 0bc2:5021 Seagate RSS LLC
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 05c8:0100 Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd
(Foxlink)
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187B
Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

ian at Viki:~$ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 08ff:2580 AuthenTec, Inc. AES2501 Fingerprint Sensor
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 03f0:171d Hewlett-Packard Wireless (Bluetooth +
WLAN) Interface [Integrated Module]
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 15d9:0a4c Trust International B.V.
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 04b3:301b IBM Corp. SK-8815 Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 04b3:301a IBM Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 011: ID 0ea0:2108 Ours Technology, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

ian at Sonny:~$ sudo lsusb -s 002:33 -v
http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/575328/

ian at Viki:~$ sudo lsusb -vs 01:11
Swipe your finger on AuthenTec AES2501
http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/575330/

When I plugged it into the test Windows XP virtualbox all of the above
stayed exactly the same.