USB Directconnect cable - unable to get it to work

[Nils Kassube]

Ian Coetzee wrote:
> 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 :(

From the syslog excerpt it looks like the device creates a virtual CD 
drive on both machines as soon as you connect the second one. Then 
Windows autoloads a driver / application from that CD to configure the 
network between the machines. You could have a look at that virtual CD 
but I don't think there is anything for Linux included on it. As you 
googled already without success, I would assume it is a Windows-only 
solution. Maybe you should ask the vendor and/or manufacturer for a 
Linux driver. As an alternative you could sponsor such a device to 
someone involved in kernel development in the hope that they would write 
a network driver for it.

> 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]

Can't you use a standard ethernet cable instead of the wireless link? A 
gigabit ethernet link should be even much faster than the USB cable.


Nils