Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 7.6

Chapter 12. System Utilities

usbutils-007

Introduction to USB Utils

The USB Utils package contains an utility used to display information about USB buses in the system and the devices connected to them.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-7.6 platform.

Package Information

USB Utils Dependencies

Required

libusb-1.0.19

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/usbutils

Installation of USB Utils

Install USB Utils by running the following commands: 

./configure --prefix=/usr  \
            --disable-zlib \
            --datadir=/usr/share/misc &&
make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Now, as the root user: 

make install &&
mv -v /usr/sbin/update-usbids.sh /usr/sbin/update-usbids

Command Explanations

--disable-zlib: This stops USB Utils from installing a compressed usb.ids alongside the uncompressed one.

Configuring USB Utils

The usb.ids data file is constantly being updated. To get a current version of this file, run update-usbids as the root user. This program requires the Which-2.20 script or program to find Lynx-2.8.8rel.2 or Wget-1.15 which are used to download the most current file, and replace the existing file in /usr/share/misc.

You may wish to add an entry to root's (or any other user who has write privilege to /usr/share/misc) crontab to automatically update the usb.ids file periodically.

Contents

Installed Programs: lsusb, update-usbids, usb-devices, and usbhid-dump
Installed Libraries: None
Installed Directories: None

Short Descriptions

lsusb

is an utility for displaying information about all USB buses in the system and all devices connected to them.

update-usbids

downloads the current version of the USB ID list. Requires Lynx-2.8.8rel.2 or Wget-1.15.

usb-devices

is a shell script that displays details of USB buses and devices connected to them. It is designed to be used if /proc/bus/usb/devices is not available on your system.

usbhid-dump

is used to dump report descriptors and streams from HID (human interface device) interfaces of USB devices.

Last updated on 2014-09-14 12:09:32 -0700