N900 Hardware USB Host

This page is for those working on the implementation of friendly USB host mode.

See also the garage project.

Contents

[edit] Status

USB Host mode has reached beta status, and is working reliably with manual speed switching.

Proper host mode would only require the normal cable, and a commonly available adapter. (USB A-A adaptor) Or maybe you like to get a fitting all-in-one small adapter, or make one fit (N8 OTG adapter rework). Huge rigid adapters are STRONGLY DEPRECATED, regarding the notorious problems with USB receptacle coming off the PCB.

A pre-alpha of hostmode was released on the 23rd of September, here: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=824298

This release is unreliable, and an implementation of proper host mode is likely to be much more stable.

A beta release, based on Paul's completely rewritten patches (see h-e-n's garage repository) was released on the 7th of November, and is the closest release yet to proper hostmode, http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=65232

There are several parts to getting USB host mode working for normal users.

Some of these are quite easy, many are not.

  • Kernel modifications to make USB host work properly [done, thanks to Paul]
  • USB modules for supporting hardware. This is fairly simple for most hardware - some hardware modules will not compile cleanly on ARM, and binary drivers that allow you to use windows drivers with some stuff will never work.

For most drivers, if a particular driver does not work, it's generally a bug in the driver that should be fixed by that drivers maintainer.

This is in progress. All of the hardware required to make a BME clone is understood.

  • Usermode software.
    • The current software will not do the right thing if the user plugs in almost all devices - even if hostmode worked. To make a mouse work, you might want to enable a pointer for example.

[edit] Ideas for hostmode user-software

When an external power supply is found, the following should be done in sequence.

  • If the supply is a charger (D+,D- short, detected by the 1707a), fast charge.
  • Attempt to enumerate as a device, if this succeeds (including handling of suspended busses), then enumerate and charge as a device, respecting the enumerated current.
  • If both enumeration as a device and charger detection have failed, we may be plugged into a hub or device with reverse power. Attempt to enumerate connected devices (=hostmode. Will not work due to [probably hardware] limitations in hostmode, which block speed selection after VBUS got applied). Charge at user-defined maximum current. For example - may be a 500mA power supply also supplying the hub and a keyboard = 2 unit loads - max draw = 300mA. Anyway see http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=921203#post921203 for actually powering N900 from external supply during hostmode. Implementation of this feature to h-e-n GUI still pending.

[edit] Installation

Install hostmode-gui from -devel, kernel-power will be installed if no other compatible kernel is present.

apt-get install hostmode-gui

[Update]

"The most recent h-e-n pkg itself should come without any kernel now (just the GUI), however, it does depend on kernel-feature-usbhost, so any kernel providing that works, if no kernel is installed, kernel-power will be installed, and - as mentioned in a previous post - h-e-n doesn't plan to ship any dedicated hostmode kernels anymore. The GUI will check if a compatible API is present (as per /proc/driver/musb_hdrc), and will notify to user if problems are detected (with hostmode support in whatever is the currently installed kernel).

Of course a mere update of h-e-n pkg won't magically switch from h-e-n hostmode kernel to power kernel. You have to care for that yourself."

[edit] Usage

A help window is available and will guide you through the steps needed. The mount button currently executes a script that reads /proc/partitions and mounts all devices there on /media/<partition_number>. The script will also modprobe ntfs and isofs (if /dev/sr0 is present), it will also create a temporary symlink (/dev/dvd) so mplayer works without any modifications (a package with DVD support compiled is needed) Disabling tracker by adding /media/<partition_name> to tracker-cfg's non watch configuration is HIGHLY recommended, use tracker-cfg UI.

[edit] Devices

You can plug-in almost anything into a usb port of the n900. However, many devices require a special driver in order to work. The custom kernel already provides basic drivers for devices such as:

  • USB Storage(cd-roms, flash drives, hdd, etc)
  • USB HID(Keyboards, mice, joysticks, touchpads, etc)

[edit] Demos

[edit] Hostmode development team:

Project Admins:

  • Joerg Reisenweber
  • Paul Fertser

Developers:

  • Chitrang Srivastava
  • Dave na
  • Hagen Meyer
  • Ian Stirling
  • Jacek Milewicz
  • Klaus Kurzmann
  • Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh
  • Mugur Enache
  • Sarah Newman
  • Sonny Jim
  • Tom Tanner

Most information is taken from this thread created by MohammadAG

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