USB-over-IP Networking for Kernel 3.x Puppies

[rcrsn51]

This little project lets you share USB devices across a network using a client-server model.

Because the PETS below contain kernel modules, they only work on specific Puppies or variants with the matching kernel.

Install the PET on both the server and client machine. Look in the Network menu for USBIP Server and USBIP Client.
The system can (in theory) work with any USB device - flash drives, external hard drives, webcams, etc. I had some luck streaming webcams, but only if I used VLC as the viewer.

Server

1. Click the Start button.

2 Look at the list of local devices. Each one is identified by an x-y "busid" code.

3. Enter the x-y code in the Share box and click the button. Your device is now being shared across the network. If you look in the device list again, it will now be identified as "usbip".

Client

1. Select the IP address of the server. If necessary, click Rescan to search your network for more servers. You can even connect to devices located on different servers at the same time.

2. Look at the list of remote devices.

3. Enter the x-y code for the device and click the button. If successful, a drive icon for the remote device will appear on your screen. But some slow devices, like flash drives, will not connect the first time. Click Reset, wait a few seconds and try again. Be patient. Some flash drives won't work at all, but external hard drives work well.

4. When done, click Reset on the client. The remote drive icon will disappear. Then stop the server. Its local drive icon will reappear. Occasionally, some devices will not restore properly. You may need to reboot the machine to reset its USB system.

What USBIP is Not

It may occur to you that USBIP looks like a poor-man's version of Samba file sharing. But there's a catch. It is NOT multi-user. Only one client can attach to a server device at a time.

[01micko]

Slacko-5.4 and 5.5 include usbip-1.2 in the PPM, the kernel drivers are builtin to the kernel package (as modules).

I have just used this in practice as I needed to scan on my main machine but I have the printer (canon mp490 m-f-d) connected to a file/print server. Worked on second attempt. First attempt Xsane couldn't find the scanner so I released the device on the client and rescanned then re-attached. Worked.

[rcrsn51]

It's nice to see this project getting some exercise. But it's probably easier to use a networked scanner with this method.