xref: /qemu/docs/system/devices/usb.rst (revision 324b2298feab35533d44301cfdae332c086463cf)
1.. _pcsys_005fusb:
2
3USB emulation
4-------------
5
6QEMU can emulate a PCI UHCI, OHCI, EHCI or XHCI USB controller. You can
7plug virtual USB devices or real host USB devices (only works with
8certain host operating systems). QEMU will automatically create and
9connect virtual USB hubs as necessary to connect multiple USB devices.
10
11.. _usb_005fdevices:
12
13Connecting USB devices
14~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15
16USB devices can be connected with the ``-device usb-...`` command line
17option or the ``device_add`` monitor command. Available devices are:
18
19``usb-mouse``
20   Virtual Mouse. This will override the PS/2 mouse emulation when
21   activated.
22
23``usb-tablet``
24   Pointer device that uses absolute coordinates (like a touchscreen).
25   This means QEMU is able to report the mouse position without having
26   to grab the mouse. Also overrides the PS/2 mouse emulation when
27   activated.
28
29``usb-storage,drive=drive_id``
30   Mass storage device backed by drive_id (see
31   :ref:`disk_005fimages`)
32
33``usb-uas``
34   USB attached SCSI device, see
35   `usb-storage.txt <https://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git;a=blob_plain;f=docs/usb-storage.txt>`__
36   for details
37
38``usb-bot``
39   Bulk-only transport storage device, see
40   `usb-storage.txt <https://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git;a=blob_plain;f=docs/usb-storage.txt>`__
41   for details here, too
42
43``usb-mtp,rootdir=dir``
44   Media transfer protocol device, using dir as root of the file tree
45   that is presented to the guest.
46
47``usb-host,hostbus=bus,hostaddr=addr``
48   Pass through the host device identified by bus and addr
49
50``usb-host,vendorid=vendor,productid=product``
51   Pass through the host device identified by vendor and product ID
52
53``usb-wacom-tablet``
54   Virtual Wacom PenPartner tablet. This device is similar to the
55   ``tablet`` above but it can be used with the tslib library because in
56   addition to touch coordinates it reports touch pressure.
57
58``usb-kbd``
59   Standard USB keyboard. Will override the PS/2 keyboard (if present).
60
61``usb-serial,chardev=id``
62   Serial converter. This emulates an FTDI FT232BM chip connected to
63   host character device id.
64
65``usb-braille,chardev=id``
66   Braille device. This will use BrlAPI to display the braille output on
67   a real or fake device referenced by id.
68
69``usb-net[,netdev=id]``
70   Network adapter that supports CDC ethernet and RNDIS protocols. id
71   specifies a netdev defined with ``-netdev …,id=id``. For instance,
72   user-mode networking can be used with
73
74   .. parsed-literal::
75
76      |qemu_system| [...] -netdev user,id=net0 -device usb-net,netdev=net0
77
78``usb-ccid``
79   Smartcard reader device
80
81``usb-audio``
82   USB audio device
83
84.. _host_005fusb_005fdevices:
85
86Using host USB devices on a Linux host
87~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
88
89WARNING: this is an experimental feature. QEMU will slow down when using
90it. USB devices requiring real time streaming (i.e. USB Video Cameras)
91are not supported yet.
92
931. If you use an early Linux 2.4 kernel, verify that no Linux driver is
94   actually using the USB device. A simple way to do that is simply to
95   disable the corresponding kernel module by renaming it from
96   ``mydriver.o`` to ``mydriver.o.disabled``.
97
982. Verify that ``/proc/bus/usb`` is working (most Linux distributions
99   should enable it by default). You should see something like that:
100
101   ::
102
103      ls /proc/bus/usb
104      001  devices  drivers
105
1063. Since only root can access to the USB devices directly, you can
107   either launch QEMU as root or change the permissions of the USB
108   devices you want to use. For testing, the following suffices:
109
110   ::
111
112      chown -R myuid /proc/bus/usb
113
1144. Launch QEMU and do in the monitor:
115
116   ::
117
118      info usbhost
119        Device 1.2, speed 480 Mb/s
120          Class 00: USB device 1234:5678, USB DISK
121
122   You should see the list of the devices you can use (Never try to use
123   hubs, it won't work).
124
1255. Add the device in QEMU by using:
126
127   ::
128
129      device_add usb-host,vendorid=0x1234,productid=0x5678
130
131   Normally the guest OS should report that a new USB device is plugged.
132   You can use the option ``-device usb-host,...`` to do the same.
133
1346. Now you can try to use the host USB device in QEMU.
135
136When relaunching QEMU, you may have to unplug and plug again the USB
137device to make it work again (this is a bug).
138