=head1 NAME

Device::USB::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions for Device::USB

=head1 SYNOPSIS

perldoc Device::USB::FAQ

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This is an attempt to answer some of the frequently asked questions about
the Device::USB module

=head1 QUESTIONS

=head2 Which platforms does Device::USB support?

C<Device:USB> supports any platform that C<libusb> supports. This list
currently includes Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Darwin, and MacOS X.

There is a port of the C<libusb> library to the Windows environment called
C<LibUsb-Win32>. Because I don't have a development environment for testing
this library, C<Device::USB> does not yet support this library.

=head2 Do I have to use Device::USB as root?

By default, access to the USB devices on a Unix-based system appear to be
limited to the root account. This usually causes access to most of the
C<libusb> features to fail with a permission error.

Using the C<Device::USB> module as root avoids this feature, but is not
very satisfying from a security standpoint. (See the next question for
more options.)

=head2 How do I enable use of Device::USB as a non-root user?

Some of the attributes of USB devices are available to non-root users, but
accessing many of the more interesting features require special privileges.
According to the libusb source, the C<open()> function requires either device
nodes to be present or the usbfs file system to be mounted in specific
locations. Those places in order are:

=over 4

=item 1)

F</dev/bus/usb>  - pre-2.6.11: via devfs / post-2.6.11: via udev

=item 2)

F</proc/bus/usb> - usbfs

=back

Look in both locations on your system for which of these two methods your
libusb will use.

No matter which method your system uses, you will probably want to create a
separate group to control access. Run this command to add a system group:

  addgroup --system usb

or

  groupadd --system usb

You can then add users to that group to allow access to your usb devices.

=head3 DEVFS / HOTPLUG

TODO

=head3 UDEV

If you use Debian/Ubuntu, look in the F</etc/udev/permissions.rules> file.
If you want to allow global access to all usb devices, make this change:

Change this:
  SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", MODE="0664"

To this:
  SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", MODE="0664", GROUP="usb"

After you reboot, all usb devices will inherit the mode and group specified.

If you want to only change permissions for certain devices, you can add this
on one line and adjust the product and vendor IDs:

  SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GROUP="usb", \
    SYSFS{idVendor}=="1234", SYSFS{idProduct}=="1234"

=head3 USBFS

The usbfs defaults to root as the user and group. This can be changed in the
F</etc/fstab> by adding the following on one line:

  none /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto,\
      listuid=0,listgid=118,listmode=0664,\
      busuid=0,busgid=118,busmode=0775,\
      devuid=0,devgid=118,devmode=0664\
      0 0

The value C<118> in the above should be replaced with the group id of
your usb group (created above). The list* values are to allow listing
devices, the bus* is to control access to the bus directories and the
dev* values control access to the device files. This approach does not
allow the kind of granular permission that the udev approach gives, so
it is all or nothing unless permissions are changed programmatically.

If your F</etc/fstab> file already has a line for F</proc/bus/usb>, add the
options above to the line that is already there rather than adding the
new line. For example, you would change

  usbfs   /proc/bus/usb   usbfs   noauto  0 0

to

  usbfs   /proc/bus/usb   usbfs  noauto,\
      listuid=0,listgid=118,listmode=0664,\
      busuid=0,busgid=118,busmode=0775,\
      devuid=0,devgid=118,devmode=0664\
      0 0

Once again, this needs to be all on one line with the C<\> characters
removed.

=head1 SEE ALSO

Device::USB and the C<libusb> library site at
L<http://libusb.sourceforge.net/>.

=head1 AUTHOR

G. Wade Johnson (wade at anomaly dot org)
Paul Archer (paul at paularcher dot org)

Houston Perl Mongers Group

=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks go to various users who submitted questions and answers for the
list. In particular, Anthony L. Awtrey who contributed the first FAQ answer.

=head1 COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

Copyright 2006 Houston Perl Mongers

This document is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.

=cut