On Mon, Aug 03, 2026 at 05:05:58PM -0700, ron minnich wrote: > One of those things that says to me "I'm done for the day, going back to > Plan 9" > > https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/usb/usbip_protocol.html > > This sort of thing still has the power to surprise me, but I guess on some > systems you need it. > > "The USB/IP Project aims to develop a general USB device sharing system > over IP network. " > > I believe we spell that "import"? > > "The USB/IP protocol follows a server/client architecture. The server > exports the USB devices and the clients import them. The device driver for > the exported USB device runs on the client machine." > > A whole new protocol for one special case.
Not quite. The usbip kernel drivers just take a socket file descriptor (which should be configured in userland) and is forwarding the usb protocol over it. The socket doesn't have to be an "IP" socket -- it can also be e.g. a unix domain or bluetooth socket. Which means that you can tunnel the USB protocol over any kind of (reliable) pipe. Just like e.g. nbd. You don't have to use the userland parts from the USB/IP project (which are quite buggy, and practically unusable nowadays without some kind of docker / containerization on both the server and the client). I know that because I'm actually using it to turn a raspberry pi 2w into a kind of wireless usb hub, with no extra setup on either the rpi or the main computer. Quite handy if the main computer is in another room -- the only cable left is the hdmi one from the monitor. ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/T9e92db15f004ea07-M4e8063b8da6f84ed2741df99 Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
