What I want to do:
An AI program on a host machine, reading inputs from a camera sensing the screen of the target machine and outputting controls to the target machine via USB connection--programming the host machine's USB host as a USB peripheral connected to the target machine.
What I want to do step by step: (is it possible to implement the steps below?)
Have a host machine A and a target machine B.
Connect A and B with a USB 3.0 Type-A male-male cable.
The USB connection shows up as an HID keyboard device on B.
Write code to simulate key presses on A that sends to B.
(Eg. calling press('F') on a program running on A would type F to B's input)
It shouldn't require any program installed on B.
What I already searched:
USB 3.0 Host to host connection is possible:
https://superuser.com/questions/795053/how-do-i-connect-two-computers-using-usb-3-0
USB 2.0 Host to host connection is impossible:
https://superuser.com/questions/99274/how-to-connect-two-computers-with-usb
Similar questions asked without the assumption that USB 3.0 Host to Host connection is possible:
https://superuser.com/questions/1128365/simulate-usb-keyboard-from-machine
Setting up a computer to act as an HID device connected to another computer via ps/2,usb or another wired connection
https://superuser.com/questions/507921/computer-to-act-as-keyboard?rq=1
Suggestions in ascending order of feasibility:
USB Gadgets
You are using linux, so the default way would be to create/configure/load a gadget driver. Have a look at this tutorial, though for a raspberry, should work on your PC too. However, I could not find any information regarding the use of USB3 - the tutorial assumes your host is using one of it's OTG ports, which your PC most likely does not have. So whether this works with your USB3.1 Type-A-to-Type-A connection you'll need to test.
USBIP
The idea of sharing USB devices (not just keyboards) is not really new. With USBIP you can "export" any local USB device to the network, and your client will need the client-side USBIP driver to access the keyboard.
Dont bother with USB at all, just use Ethernet
I'd simply write two userland scripts/programs that send/receive+execute the keystrokes. Very easy to implement, you're probably familiar with python anyway.
If you absolutely cant have software installed on the client-PC and your Type-C-to-Type-C connection doesnt support USB Gadgets, there's another way. It basically involves the use of two USB-to-serial adapters (~15$) and a serial cable. While this wont be enumerated as a keyboard, but rather as serial port, it's the lowest-effort solution to transfer data without additional software on the client. Both computers will just do file I/O. If your computers still have COM-ports, you can even omit the serial converters!
Related
I have an Android tablet and A Raspberry Pi and I want to established a connection between them automatically when the tablet sends a request to the Pi.
I followed an Android application example here and start discovering any nearby devices. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnY97iBxp30)
At the same time i run sudo wpa_cli and p2p_find 20. The Android application detects the Pi, and I try to establish connection with the Pi which will display
<3>P2P-GO-NEG-REQUEST TABLET_MAC_ADDRESS dev_passwd_id=4
Normally I would just p2p_connect TABLET_MAC_ADDRESS pbc to successfully connect them together but I find it inefficient if I were to swap to another mobile device.
Are there any other ways to connect the tablet without writing the tablet mac address? For example connecting to that specific device ssid when they send a P2P-GO-NEG-REQUEST to the pi?
TL;DR Nope.
If we look at the OSI ISO 7 layer model for network communication we can see that the Media Access Control (MAC) address is vital for identifying which device is which within a wifi network.
You could try setting up a bluetooth connection or a token-ring, but I suspect that would be more effort than you are looking for.
With IPv6 your devices could use neighbour discovery to automate past the MAC entry to the Internet Protocol, and its possible to connect between devices using their link-local address (fe80::some:thing)
Wifi carries packets of data, that have addresses. By analogy, if I tell you which town I live in, but don't write my building address on the packet, you are going to have a hard time delivering it.
I'm trying to create a usb based ethernet device on my computer, basically I want to tell my computer (linux based) that one of its usb ports is actually an ethernet port. I have done extensive research and while it's supposed to be possible, I can't find any examples of code / commands to run.
According to wikipedia:
The USB-eth module in Linux makes the computer running it a variation of an Ethernet device that uses USB as the physical medium. It creates a Linux network interface, which can be assigned an IP address and otherwise treated the same as a true Ethernet interface. Any applications that work over real Ethernet interfaces will work over a USB-eth interface without modification, because they can't tell that they aren't using real Ethernet hardware.
So in theory, this should be possible, I just need some help or a gentle nudge in the right direction to get this thing rolling. What I'm NOT trying to do is plug a usb to ethernet dongle/adapter into my computer, I have several of those lying around and that doesn't help me out at all.
this is ethernet-over-usb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_over_USB
without external hardware you can try the CDCether kernel module and ethtool ( then you can only connect to a usb device that operates in usb device mode )
( https://developer.ridgerun.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_use_USB_device_networking , http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Motorola-Surfboard-Modem/usb.html, http://www.linux-usb.org/usbnet/ )
else you need a physical adapter for this. the adapter translates between the protocols and the different hardware interfaces.
in usb protocol can only be one host in a network, therefore you need at least a host-to-host cable ( http://www.linux-usb.org/usbnet/ ) if you want to connect two usb host devices, i.e. two pcs
required kernel module ( driver ) when using a physical adapter is either usbnet ( with its minidrivers ) or usb-eth
I am on debian and:
I have a USB controller hooked up to a USB port on my PC (Device 1).
I have a male to male USB cord hooked up to another port on the PC that connects to Device 2. (it is a "bridging" usb cord, and has the chip for it)
I want to make them connect to each other as if they were one cord, so neither device knows that there is a computer in the middle.
This would be called a 'Coupler', except that I am using a PC as a coupler.
Here is a (really bad) diagram I made:
What I have done:
I have been able to connect the two devices independently of each other and sniff the results for when they fail to connect. The devices don't send a large volume of data back and forth.
Maybe there is some kind of command tool that I could use, for example (psudocode):
$ couple-usb-ports PORT1 PORT2
You're trying to reinvent the wheel here.
You might consider looking at this link instead.
http://dan3lmi.blogspot.com/2012/10/sniffing-usb-traffic-different.html
Specifically this.
Windows: You cannot directly capture raw USB traffic on Windows with Wireshark/WinPcap, but it is possible to capture and debug USB traffic on a virtual Windows machine under Oracle Virtual Box.
You cannot use a simple PC as transparent USB sniffer without extra (expensive) hardware. An USB bus has always one host (and one or more devices), and the PC can only be the host. This is a hardware limitation.
But you can capture USB data in a Windows machine using Wireshark and USBPcap, eliminating the need for the middle box in most cases.
As this post is tagged Linux, I suppose the controller PC is a Linux machine. Instead of connecting USB ports with a male-male connector, which is all kinds of bad (you are connecting the 5V lines of both machine with each other!), just run Wireshark in the controller PC.
There might be a little work to be done previously, as you have to enable Wireshark for USB monitoring (Particularly in Debian, this is disabled by default), and you might have to install a small driver to enable the monitoring. Have a look at this page for more information.
Once you get it working, Wireshark is an excellent tool for this!
I have a linux platform* that is connected as a usb device to an automotive device which acts as the USB host. The two devices should communicate over CDC/NCM, but the linux platform is not recognised by the automotive device and therefore the connection is not established. Surprisingly a connection to my computer is established correctly.
I now need to create a trace of that USB connection in order to check if there is an error in the USB handshake that can't be handled by the automotive device. As I cannot access the USB host, I need to create the trace from the gadget side.
I tried using usbmon and tcpdump, but this seems to work only for USB controllers configured as hosts on the tracing platform, not for ones configured as devices.
How can I configure usbmon to work also on devices?
If that is not possible are there any other possibilities to achieve this? (preferrably without hacking any drivers...)
Or do I have to use a Hardware USB sniffer?
BTW, all required modules (esp. g_ncm) are correctly loaded.
Thank you for your help!
stefan
*custom distribution on a freescale iMX6 processor (ARM), Kernel Version 3.0.35
Is there a way to use one computer to send keystrokes to another by usb ?
What i'm looking to do is to capture the usb signal used by a keyboard (with USBTrace for example) and use it with PC-1 to send it to PC-2.
So that PC-2 reconize it as a regular keyboard input.
Some leads to do this would be very appreciated.
What you essentially need is a USB port on PC-1 that will act as a USB device for PC-2.
That is not possible for the vast majority of PC systems because USB is an asymmetric bus, with a host/device (or master/slave, if you wish) architecture. USB controllers (and their ports) on most PCs can only work in host mode and cannot simulate a device.
That is the reason that you cannot network computers through USB without a special cable with specialised electronics.
The only exception is if you somehow have a PC that supports the USB On-The-Go standard that allows for a USB port to act in both host and device mode. USB-OTG devices do exist, but they are usually embedded devices (smartphones etc). I don't know if there is a way to add a USB-OTG port to a commodity PC.
EDIT:
If you do not need a keyboard before the OS on PC-2 boots, you might be able to use a pair of USB Bluetooth dongles - one on each PC. You'd have to use specialised software on PC-1, but it is definitely possible - I've already seen a possible implementation on Linux, and I am reasonably certain that there must be one for Windows. You will also need Bluetooth HID drivers on PC-2, if they are not already installed.
On a different note, have you considered a purely software/network solution such as TightVNC?
There is a solution:
https://github.com/Flowm/etherkey
This uses a network connection from your computer to the raspi which is connected to a teensy (usb developer board) to send the key strokes.
This solution is not an out-of-the-box product. The required skill is similar to programming some other devices like arduino. But it's a complete and working setup.
The cheapest options are commercial microcontrollers (eg arduino platform, pic, etc) or ready built usb keyboard controllers (eg i-pac, arcade controllers,etc)
SEARCH THIS PROGRAM:
TWedge: Keyboard Wedge Software (RS232, Serial, TCP, Bluetooth)
then, MAKE YOUR OWN CONNECTION CABLE WITH:
(usb <-> rs232) + (NULL MODEM) + (rs232 <-> usb)
Connect 2 computer, write your own program to send signal to your (usb <-> rs232) unit, then you can control another computer under the help of TWedge.
The above mentionned https://github.com/Flowm/etherkey is one way. The keyboard is emulated from an rPi, but the principle can be used from PC to PC (or Mac to Whatever). The core answer to your question is to use an OTG-capable chip, and then you control this chip via a USB-serial adapter.
https://euer.krebsco.de/a-software-kvm-switch.html
uses a very similar method, using an Arduino instead of the Teensy.
The generic answer is: you need an OTG capable, or slave capable device: Arduino, Teensy, Pi 0 (either from Rapberry or Orange brands, both work; only the ZERO models are OTG capable), or, an rPi-A with heavy customisation (since it does not include USB hub, it can theoretically be converted into a slave; never found any public tutorial to do it), or any smartphone (Samsung, Nokia, HTC, Oukitel ... most smartphones are OTG capable). If you go for a Pi or a phone, then, you want to dig around USB Gadget. Cheaper solutions (Arduino/Teensy) need custom firmware.