xref: /openbmc/qemu/docs/system/devices/usb.rst (revision a6caeee8)
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
11USB controllers
12~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13
14XHCI controller support
15^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
16
17QEMU has XHCI host adapter support.  The XHCI hardware design is much
18more virtualization-friendly when compared to EHCI and UHCI, thus XHCI
19emulation uses less resources (especially CPU).  So if your guest
20supports XHCI (which should be the case for any operating system
21released around 2010 or later) we recommend using it:
22
23    qemu -device qemu-xhci
24
25XHCI supports USB 1.1, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices, so this is the
26only controller you need.  With only a single USB controller (and
27therefore only a single USB bus) present in the system there is no
28need to use the bus= parameter when adding USB devices.
29
30
31EHCI controller support
32^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
33
34The QEMU EHCI Adapter supports USB 2.0 devices.  It can be used either
35standalone or with companion controllers (UHCI, OHCI) for USB 1.1
36devices.  The companion controller setup is more convenient to use
37because it provides a single USB bus supporting both USB 2.0 and USB
381.1 devices.  See next section for details.
39
40When running EHCI in standalone mode you can add UHCI or OHCI
41controllers for USB 1.1 devices too.  Each controller creates its own
42bus though, so there are two completely separate USB buses: One USB
431.1 bus driven by the UHCI controller and one USB 2.0 bus driven by
44the EHCI controller.  Devices must be attached to the correct
45controller manually.
46
47The easiest way to add a UHCI controller to a ``pc`` machine is the
48``-usb`` switch.  QEMU will create the UHCI controller as function of
49the PIIX3 chipset.  The USB 1.1 bus will carry the name ``usb-bus.0``.
50
51You can use the standard ``-device`` switch to add a EHCI controller to
52your virtual machine.  It is strongly recommended to specify an ID for
53the controller so the USB 2.0 bus gets an individual name, for example
54``-device usb-ehci,id=ehci``.  This will give you a USB 2.0 bus named
55``ehci.0``.
56
57When adding USB devices using the ``-device`` switch you can specify the
58bus they should be attached to.  Here is a complete example:
59
60.. parsed-literal::
61
62    |qemu_system| -M pc ${otheroptions}                        \\
63        -drive if=none,id=usbstick,format=raw,file=/path/to/image   \\
64        -usb                                                        \\
65        -device usb-ehci,id=ehci                                    \\
66        -device usb-tablet,bus=usb-bus.0                            \\
67        -device usb-storage,bus=ehci.0,drive=usbstick
68
69This attaches a USB tablet to the UHCI adapter and a USB mass storage
70device to the EHCI adapter.
71
72
73Companion controller support
74^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
75
76The UHCI and OHCI controllers can attach to a USB bus created by EHCI
77as companion controllers.  This is done by specifying the ``masterbus``
78and ``firstport`` properties.  ``masterbus`` specifies the bus name the
79controller should attach to.  ``firstport`` specifies the first port the
80controller should attach to, which is needed as usually one EHCI
81controller with six ports has three UHCI companion controllers with
82two ports each.
83
84There is a config file in docs which will do all this for
85you, which you can use like this:
86
87.. parsed-literal::
88
89   |qemu_system| -readconfig docs/config/ich9-ehci-uhci.cfg
90
91Then use ``bus=ehci.0`` to assign your USB devices to that bus.
92
93Using the ``-usb`` switch for ``q35`` machines will create a similar
94USB controller configuration.
95
96
97.. _Connecting USB devices:
98
99Connecting USB devices
100~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
101
102USB devices can be connected with the ``-device usb-...`` command line
103option or the ``device_add`` monitor command. Available devices are:
104
105``usb-mouse``
106   Virtual Mouse. This will override the PS/2 mouse emulation when
107   activated.
108
109``usb-tablet``
110   Pointer device that uses absolute coordinates (like a touchscreen).
111   This means QEMU is able to report the mouse position without having
112   to grab the mouse. Also overrides the PS/2 mouse emulation when
113   activated.
114
115``usb-storage,drive=drive_id``
116   Mass storage device backed by drive_id (see the :ref:`disk images`
117   chapter in the System Emulation Users Guide). This is the classic
118   bulk-only transport protocol used by 99% of USB sticks. This
119   example shows it connected to an XHCI USB controller and with
120   a drive backed by a raw format disk image:
121
122   .. parsed-literal::
123
124       |qemu_system| [...]                                   \\
125        -drive if=none,id=stick,format=raw,file=/path/to/file.img \\
126        -device nec-usb-xhci,id=xhci                              \\
127        -device usb-storage,bus=xhci.0,drive=stick
128
129``usb-uas``
130   USB attached SCSI device. This does not create a SCSI disk, so
131   you need to explicitly create a ``scsi-hd`` or ``scsi-cd`` device
132   on the command line, as well as using the ``-drive`` option to
133   specify what those disks are backed by. One ``usb-uas`` device can
134   handle multiple logical units (disks). This example creates three
135   logical units: two disks and one cdrom drive:
136
137   .. parsed-literal::
138
139      |qemu_system| [...]                                         \\
140       -drive if=none,id=uas-disk1,format=raw,file=/path/to/file1.img  \\
141       -drive if=none,id=uas-disk2,format=raw,file=/path/to/file2.img  \\
142       -drive if=none,id=uas-cdrom,media=cdrom,format=raw,file=/path/to/image.iso \\
143       -device nec-usb-xhci,id=xhci                                    \\
144       -device usb-uas,id=uas,bus=xhci.0                               \\
145       -device scsi-hd,bus=uas.0,scsi-id=0,lun=0,drive=uas-disk1       \\
146       -device scsi-hd,bus=uas.0,scsi-id=0,lun=1,drive=uas-disk2       \\
147       -device scsi-cd,bus=uas.0,scsi-id=0,lun=5,drive=uas-cdrom
148
149``usb-bot``
150   Bulk-only transport storage device. This presents the guest with the
151   same USB bulk-only transport protocol interface as ``usb-storage``, but
152   the QEMU command line option works like ``usb-uas`` and does not
153   automatically create SCSI disks for you. ``usb-bot`` supports up to
154   16 LUNs. Unlike ``usb-uas``, the LUN numbers must be continuous,
155   i.e. for three devices you must use 0+1+2. The 0+1+5 numbering from the
156   ``usb-uas`` example above won't work with ``usb-bot``.
157
158``usb-mtp,rootdir=dir``
159   Media transfer protocol device, using dir as root of the file tree
160   that is presented to the guest.
161
162``usb-host,hostbus=bus,hostaddr=addr``
163   Pass through the host device identified by bus and addr
164
165``usb-host,vendorid=vendor,productid=product``
166   Pass through the host device identified by vendor and product ID
167
168``usb-wacom-tablet``
169   Virtual Wacom PenPartner tablet. This device is similar to the
170   ``tablet`` above but it can be used with the tslib library because in
171   addition to touch coordinates it reports touch pressure.
172
173``usb-kbd``
174   Standard USB keyboard. Will override the PS/2 keyboard (if present).
175
176``usb-serial,chardev=id``
177   Serial converter. This emulates an FTDI FT232BM chip connected to
178   host character device id.
179
180``usb-braille,chardev=id``
181   Braille device. This will use BrlAPI to display the braille output on
182   a real or fake device referenced by id.
183
184``usb-net[,netdev=id]``
185   Network adapter that supports CDC ethernet and RNDIS protocols. id
186   specifies a netdev defined with ``-netdev …,id=id``. For instance,
187   user-mode networking can be used with
188
189   .. parsed-literal::
190
191      |qemu_system| [...] -netdev user,id=net0 -device usb-net,netdev=net0
192
193``usb-ccid``
194   Smartcard reader device
195
196``usb-audio``
197   USB audio device
198
199``u2f-{emulated,passthru}``
200   Universal Second Factor device
201
202``canokey``
203   An Open-source Secure Key implementing FIDO2, OpenPGP, PIV and more.
204   For more information, see :ref:`canokey`.
205
206Physical port addressing
207^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
208
209For all the above USB devices, by default QEMU will plug the device
210into the next available port on the specified USB bus, or onto
211some available USB bus if you didn't specify one explicitly.
212If you need to, you can also specify the physical port where
213the device will show up in the guest.  This can be done using the
214``port`` property.  UHCI has two root ports (1,2).  EHCI has six root
215ports (1-6), and the emulated (1.1) USB hub has eight ports.
216
217Plugging a tablet into UHCI port 1 works like this::
218
219        -device usb-tablet,bus=usb-bus.0,port=1
220
221Plugging a hub into UHCI port 2 works like this::
222
223        -device usb-hub,bus=usb-bus.0,port=2
224
225Plugging a virtual USB stick into port 4 of the hub just plugged works
226this way::
227
228        -device usb-storage,bus=usb-bus.0,port=2.4,drive=...
229
230In the monitor, the ``device_add` command also accepts a ``port``
231property specification. If you want to unplug devices too you should
232specify some unique id which you can use to refer to the device.
233You can then use ``device_del`` to unplug the device later.
234For example::
235
236        (qemu) device_add usb-tablet,bus=usb-bus.0,port=1,id=my-tablet
237        (qemu) device_del my-tablet
238
239Hotplugging USB storage
240~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
241
242The ``usb-bot`` and ``usb-uas`` devices can be hotplugged.  In the hotplug
243case they are added with ``attached = false`` so the guest will not see
244the device until the ``attached`` property is explicitly set to true.
245That allows you to attach one or more scsi devices before making the
246device visible to the guest. The workflow looks like this:
247
248#. ``device-add usb-bot,id=foo``
249#. ``device-add scsi-{hd,cd},bus=foo.0,lun=0``
250#. optionally add more devices (luns 1 ... 15)
251#. ``scripts/qmp/qom-set foo.attached = true``
252
253.. _host_005fusb_005fdevices:
254
255Using host USB devices on a Linux host
256~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
257
258WARNING: this is an experimental feature. QEMU will slow down when using
259it. USB devices requiring real time streaming (i.e. USB Video Cameras)
260are not supported yet.
261
2621. If you use an early Linux 2.4 kernel, verify that no Linux driver is
263   actually using the USB device. A simple way to do that is simply to
264   disable the corresponding kernel module by renaming it from
265   ``mydriver.o`` to ``mydriver.o.disabled``.
266
2672. Verify that ``/proc/bus/usb`` is working (most Linux distributions
268   should enable it by default). You should see something like that:
269
270   ::
271
272      ls /proc/bus/usb
273      001  devices  drivers
274
2753. Since only root can access to the USB devices directly, you can
276   either launch QEMU as root or change the permissions of the USB
277   devices you want to use. For testing, the following suffices:
278
279   ::
280
281      chown -R myuid /proc/bus/usb
282
2834. Launch QEMU and do in the monitor:
284
285   ::
286
287      info usbhost
288        Device 1.2, speed 480 Mb/s
289          Class 00: USB device 1234:5678, USB DISK
290
291   You should see the list of the devices you can use (Never try to use
292   hubs, it won't work).
293
2945. Add the device in QEMU by using:
295
296   ::
297
298      device_add usb-host,vendorid=0x1234,productid=0x5678
299
300   Normally the guest OS should report that a new USB device is plugged.
301   You can use the option ``-device usb-host,...`` to do the same.
302
3036. Now you can try to use the host USB device in QEMU.
304
305When relaunching QEMU, you may have to unplug and plug again the USB
306device to make it work again (this is a bug).
307
308``usb-host`` properties for specifying the host device
309^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
310
311The example above uses the ``vendorid`` and ``productid`` to
312specify which host device to pass through, but this is not
313the only way to specify the host device. ``usb-host`` supports
314the following properties:
315
316``hostbus=<nr>``
317  Specifies the bus number the device must be attached to
318``hostaddr=<nr>``
319  Specifies the device address the device got assigned by the guest os
320``hostport=<str>``
321  Specifies the physical port the device is attached to
322``vendorid=<hexnr>``
323  Specifies the vendor ID of the device
324``productid=<hexnr>``
325  Specifies the product ID of the device.
326
327In theory you can combine all these properties as you like.  In
328practice only a few combinations are useful:
329
330- ``vendorid`` and ``productid`` -- match for a specific device, pass it to
331  the guest when it shows up somewhere in the host.
332
333- ``hostbus`` and ``hostport`` -- match for a specific physical port in the
334  host, any device which is plugged in there gets passed to the
335  guest.
336
337- ``hostbus`` and ``hostaddr`` -- most useful for ad-hoc pass through as the
338  hostaddr isn't stable. The next time you plug the device into the host it
339  will get a new hostaddr.
340
341Note that on the host USB 1.1 devices are handled by UHCI/OHCI and USB
3422.0 by EHCI.  That means different USB devices plugged into the very
343same physical port on the host may show up on different host buses
344depending on the speed. Supposing that devices plugged into a given
345physical port appear as bus 1 + port 1 for 2.0 devices and bus 3 + port 1
346for 1.1 devices, you can pass through any device plugged into that port
347and also assign it to the correct USB bus in QEMU like this:
348
349.. parsed-literal::
350
351   |qemu_system| -M pc [...]                            \\
352        -usb                                                 \\
353        -device usb-ehci,id=ehci                             \\
354        -device usb-host,bus=usb-bus.0,hostbus=3,hostport=1  \\
355        -device usb-host,bus=ehci.0,hostbus=1,hostport=1
356