I'd like to use a USB bridge cable for updating the firmware in an embedded linux device from a Windows box. The device features a USB A port but no B port. I'd like to distribute a bridge cable and a custom windows app, and instruct the user to merely run the app and plug in the cable.
That is, it's a USB host.
As I understand it, USB bridge cables are currently only supported on Linux via the usbnet driver. I could use that, but I'd rather not expose my users to the additional complexity of configuring Windows networking.
That's the standard setup, yes. Easier setup on Linux, but it's never as painless as it should be. (Apple has had the right idea for just a few decades now ...)
The transmission would be a single unidirectional bulk transfer. As such, I don't need medium access control, addressing, connections, etc. So I should be able to do away with those layers of network protocol, right?
Right, you just have to get the right drivers hooked up on both ends.
Unidirectional is probably bad, you'd need some status exchange. There's the DFU class spec, which resembles overkill but should give you some ideas. Errors do happen, particularly since a lot of those cables are not robustly designed, and you'd need to detect and recover from them. (Like, by network checksums and retransmissions!)
Ignoring Windows for the moment, is it feasible to cut down the usbnet driver to send a file between two linux machines without using the network stack? Or am I fundamentally misunderstanding something?
If you're not doing networking, don't start with that code except maybe for reference.
Many of the cables just pass bulk along with few problems beyond whether they want some connection setup handshake. So writing your own driver should be easy.
- Dave
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