[NTLUG:Discuss] USB monitoring.

Steve Baker sjbaker1 at airmail.net
Mon Apr 11 23:01:03 CDT 2005


Is there a way to have a Linux machine spy in on the USB
transmissions between a Windows PC and a USB peripheral?

I'm guessing I might need some kind of USB cross-over cable - but
I can make that.

The problem is that I have a USB peripheral which I need to use under
Linux - but which has no available Linux drivers - so I'm preparing
to dive in and try to reverse engineer the basic protocols.

The device is a writer for a flash memory cartridge of the kind used
in a GameBoy.  The cause is a worthy one -

I know that the USB interface chip it uses is a common one that's used
in a lot of USB devices - but it's designed to have it's microcode
downloaded via USB when it starts up - then it's subsequent protocol is evidently
determined by that microcode.

Hence, I need to run the Windows driver and watch what it sends back
and forth to the peripheral as it writes a file to the flash cartridge
and hopefully replicate that in my own code.

Any ideas?

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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