xref: /qemu/docs/system/devices/usb.rst (revision b21e2380)
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
202Physical port addressing
203^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
204
205For all the above USB devices, by default QEMU will plug the device
206into the next available port on the specified USB bus, or onto
207some available USB bus if you didn't specify one explicitly.
208If you need to, you can also specify the physical port where
209the device will show up in the guest.  This can be done using the
210``port`` property.  UHCI has two root ports (1,2).  EHCI has six root
211ports (1-6), and the emulated (1.1) USB hub has eight ports.
212
213Plugging a tablet into UHCI port 1 works like this::
214
215        -device usb-tablet,bus=usb-bus.0,port=1
216
217Plugging a hub into UHCI port 2 works like this::
218
219        -device usb-hub,bus=usb-bus.0,port=2
220
221Plugging a virtual USB stick into port 4 of the hub just plugged works
222this way::
223
224        -device usb-storage,bus=usb-bus.0,port=2.4,drive=...
225
226In the monitor, the ``device_add` command also accepts a ``port``
227property specification. If you want to unplug devices too you should
228specify some unique id which you can use to refer to the device.
229You can then use ``device_del`` to unplug the device later.
230For example::
231
232        (qemu) device_add usb-tablet,bus=usb-bus.0,port=1,id=my-tablet
233        (qemu) device_del my-tablet
234
235Hotplugging USB storage
236~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
237
238The ``usb-bot`` and ``usb-uas`` devices can be hotplugged.  In the hotplug
239case they are added with ``attached = false`` so the guest will not see
240the device until the ``attached`` property is explicitly set to true.
241That allows you to attach one or more scsi devices before making the
242device visible to the guest. The workflow looks like this:
243
244#. ``device-add usb-bot,id=foo``
245#. ``device-add scsi-{hd,cd},bus=foo.0,lun=0``
246#. optionally add more devices (luns 1 ... 15)
247#. ``scripts/qmp/qom-set foo.attached = true``
248
249.. _host_005fusb_005fdevices:
250
251Using host USB devices on a Linux host
252~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
253
254WARNING: this is an experimental feature. QEMU will slow down when using
255it. USB devices requiring real time streaming (i.e. USB Video Cameras)
256are not supported yet.
257
2581. If you use an early Linux 2.4 kernel, verify that no Linux driver is
259   actually using the USB device. A simple way to do that is simply to
260   disable the corresponding kernel module by renaming it from
261   ``mydriver.o`` to ``mydriver.o.disabled``.
262
2632. Verify that ``/proc/bus/usb`` is working (most Linux distributions
264   should enable it by default). You should see something like that:
265
266   ::
267
268      ls /proc/bus/usb
269      001  devices  drivers
270
2713. Since only root can access to the USB devices directly, you can
272   either launch QEMU as root or change the permissions of the USB
273   devices you want to use. For testing, the following suffices:
274
275   ::
276
277      chown -R myuid /proc/bus/usb
278
2794. Launch QEMU and do in the monitor:
280
281   ::
282
283      info usbhost
284        Device 1.2, speed 480 Mb/s
285          Class 00: USB device 1234:5678, USB DISK
286
287   You should see the list of the devices you can use (Never try to use
288   hubs, it won't work).
289
2905. Add the device in QEMU by using:
291
292   ::
293
294      device_add usb-host,vendorid=0x1234,productid=0x5678
295
296   Normally the guest OS should report that a new USB device is plugged.
297   You can use the option ``-device usb-host,...`` to do the same.
298
2996. Now you can try to use the host USB device in QEMU.
300
301When relaunching QEMU, you may have to unplug and plug again the USB
302device to make it work again (this is a bug).
303
304``usb-host`` properties for specifying the host device
305^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
306
307The example above uses the ``vendorid`` and ``productid`` to
308specify which host device to pass through, but this is not
309the only way to specify the host device. ``usb-host`` supports
310the following properties:
311
312``hostbus=<nr>``
313  Specifies the bus number the device must be attached to
314``hostaddr=<nr>``
315  Specifies the device address the device got assigned by the guest os
316``hostport=<str>``
317  Specifies the physical port the device is attached to
318``vendorid=<hexnr>``
319  Specifies the vendor ID of the device
320``productid=<hexnr>``
321  Specifies the product ID of the device.
322
323In theory you can combine all these properties as you like.  In
324practice only a few combinations are useful:
325
326- ``vendorid`` and ``productid`` -- match for a specific device, pass it to
327  the guest when it shows up somewhere in the host.
328
329- ``hostbus`` and ``hostport`` -- match for a specific physical port in the
330  host, any device which is plugged in there gets passed to the
331  guest.
332
333- ``hostbus`` and ``hostaddr`` -- most useful for ad-hoc pass through as the
334  hostaddr isn't stable. The next time you plug the device into the host it
335  will get a new hostaddr.
336
337Note that on the host USB 1.1 devices are handled by UHCI/OHCI and USB
3382.0 by EHCI.  That means different USB devices plugged into the very
339same physical port on the host may show up on different host buses
340depending on the speed. Supposing that devices plugged into a given
341physical port appear as bus 1 + port 1 for 2.0 devices and bus 3 + port 1
342for 1.1 devices, you can pass through any device plugged into that port
343and also assign it to the correct USB bus in QEMU like this:
344
345.. parsed-literal::
346
347   |qemu_system| -M pc [...]                            \\
348        -usb                                                 \\
349        -device usb-ehci,id=ehci                             \\
350        -device usb-host,bus=usb-bus.0,hostbus=3,hostport=1  \\
351        -device usb-host,bus=ehci.0,hostbus=1,hostport=1
352