LibUsb-Win32

News

• 02/15/2004: Version 0.1.8.0 released
  • Ported version 0.1.8.0 of libusb to libusb-win32
  • Filter driver: fixed two bugs which caused BSODs on some systems during powerdown and device removal.
  • Filter driver: fixed bug in composite device handling code.
  • Services: added better handling of composite devices. These # devices now appear as one single device instead of multiple devices for each interface.
  • Sample inf-file: renamed to libusb.inf.
  • Sample inf-file: added better support for composite devices
  • Sample inf-file: included direct support for the Dakota and Walgreens digital cameras.
  • Installer: improved installation speed.
  
  
• 02/01/2004: Version 0.1.7.10 released
  • The binary package distributions has been split up into two parts: Filter driver and device driver. An user friendly GUI installer has been added for the filter driver. The filter driver is now installed in a different way which will now allow access to all USB devices which weren't accessible in the past (mice, scanners, etc.). A Windows system service (daemon) has been added to achive this.
    The device driver (stub driver) doesn't need the filter driver to be installed any more. Please read installation details below.
  • DLL: fixed a bug which caused the device detection to fail on some systems.
  • Filter driver: PNP and power management code improved. This will hopefully remove the shutdown and hibernation problems reported by some users on XP systems.

About

Libusb-win32 is a port of the USB library libusb to the Windows operating systems (Win98SE, WinME, Win2k, WinXP). The library allows user space applications to access any USB device on Windows in a generic way without writing any line of kernel driver code.

Features:

• Can be used as a filter driver for existing, already installed devices. This feature allows libusb-win32 to communicate with any installed USB device.
• Can be used as a normal device driver for devices for which no driver exists (self build/developed USB hardware, etc).
• The two methods described above can used in parallel without any problems.
• 100% API and functional compatible with the main libusb project.
• Supports Bulk and Interrupt transfers.
• Supports all Standard Device Requests (control messages) described in chapter 9 of the USB specification.
• Supports vendor specific control messages.

License

• The library (DLL) is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
• All other components (drivers, services, installer) are distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
• This license combination explicitly allows the use of this library in commercial, non Open Source applications. Read the licenses carefully and apply all of their requirements before including this library in a commercial application!

Support

If something isn't working as expected, make sure that you have installed the latest service packs for your OS, the mainboard's latest driver packages, and bios updates, and the latest version of libusb-win32 before requesting any support.

Available Support Options:

• A mailing list is available for discussions, questions, bug reports, feature request, and other issues.
  Please subscribe to the list first before posting.
• The project page offers different forms which can be filled out to get support, to report bugs, or to request new features.
  Please describe your problems and your system as precise as possible (OS, service packs, version of libusb-win32, type of device, etc.). This will make solving problems a lot easier.

Downloads

Source code and binary packages can be downloaded from the projects download site. Source code is also available via anonymous CVS.

Installation

Installation

Filter Driver Installation

• As of version 0.1.7.10 the filters driver is installed by a user friendly GUI installer which makes the install and uninstall process easier and more secure.
• Log in as a user with administrator privileges.
• Download the latest filter driver installer (libusb-win32-filter-bin-x.x.x.x.exe).
• Close all applications which use USB devices before installing.
• Run the installer, and follow it's instructions. Do not run the installer from an USB storage device!
• At the end of the installation process the installer will offer to run a test program. This program will verify the correct installation and print the descriptors of all USB devices accessible by the library. The test program can also be run later from the system's start menu.
• A reboot isn't necessary.

Device Driver Installation

• As of version 0.1.7.10 the device driver is distributed as a seperate package which includes everything to use libusb-win32 for single devices as a normal device driver. The installation of the filter driver is not necessary any more!
• Log in as a user with administrator privileges.
• Download the latest device driver binary package (libusb-win32-device-bin-x.x.x.x.tar.gz).
• Extract it to a temporary directory.
• Rename and edit the sample inf-file 'libusb.inf' to match your device(s) (modify the vendor and product IDs, strings etc.). Create different inf-files to install different types of devices (devices with different IDs).
• Unplug the device(s) from the system.
• Open the Windows Device Manager and remove all incorrectly installed USB devices (device entries with a yellow exclamation mark).
• Reconnect the device(s) to the system.
• When Windows asks for a driver, choose the inf-file(s) created above. On Win2k and WinXP systems, Windows will warn that the driver is is not 'digitally signed'. Ignore this message and continue with the installation.
• Open the Windows Device Manager to verify that the device is installed correctly. Run the test program (testlibusb-win.exe) from the 'bin directory'. It should print out the descriptors of your device(s).
• A reboot isn't necessary.

Removing

Removing the Filter Driver

• To remove the filter driver open the Control Panel, open 'Software', choose the 'LibUsb-Win32-x.x.x.x' entry, and remove it.
• A reboot isn't necessary.

Removing the Device Driver

• The device driver can not be removed from the system. Windows doesn't offer any option to do this.

Updating

Updating the Filter Driver

• If you have installed version 0.1.7.10 or higher, remove this version first (see above). Direct updating is not supported.
• If you have installed version 0.1.7.9 or lower, removing is not necessary. The new GUI installer will remove these versions automatically.
• Install the new version as described above.

Updating the Device Driver

• Download the latest device driver binary package (libusb-win32-device-bin-x.x.x.x.tar.gz).
• Modify the inf-file as described in the Installation section.
• Open the Device Manager and select the device you want to update.
• Choose 'Properties->Driver->Update'. Disable the automatic installation and select the new inf-file manually.

Development

Requirements

• A Win2k or XP system.
• The XP-DDK (Win2k-DDK could work, but has not been tested). A gratis CD of the DDK can be ordered at http://www.microsoft.com
• MinGW/Msys, Cygwin is not working yet, but this will change in the future. Microsoft and Borland compilers can't be used to build the library, due to their lack of full C99 support.
• Borland C++ Compiler (BCC) to build the import library for this compiler. A free command line version of BCC can be downloaded from http://www.borland.com.
• The NSIS install system.
• Make sure, that the binary directories of NSIS and BCC are in the system search path (modify the system's %PATH% environment variable).

Build Process

The package is currently build with a standard Makefile, there are no autoconf/automake scripts available yet.

• Download the latest source code.
• From a Msys shell run the following command (replace <DDKDIR> with your DDK's root directory):
  make DDK_PATH=<DDKDIR>
  to the build the library, services, and drivers.
• To build the distribution archives and the installer run:
  make dist.

Using

• To use libusb-win32 in your own programs include the supplied header file usb.h, and link against the import library (libraries for GCC, BCC, and MSVC are available)
• To avoid any version conflicts, DO NOT include the DLL libusb0.dll in your application's directory. The DLL is part of the driver and installed automatically to the Windows system directory.
• If you are porting a libusb based program from Unix style systems to Windows, remove all references to the library's global variable usb_busses. Use the function usb_get_busses() instead to get this variable. Global variables in shared libraries (DLLs) do not work on Windows systems across different compilers.

Documentation

There is no documentation available yet, accept this page. As libusb-win32 is fully API compatible to libusb, the API documentation from the main libusb project site at http://libusb.sourceforge.net can be used.

Links

• libusb: The main libusb project from which libusb-win32 is derived.
• www.usb.org: The place to get USB specifications and other general information about USB.
• www.lvr.com: Lot's of information about USB hardware and software development.
• www.beyondlogic.org: Another site with information about USB hardware and software development.
• MCCI: Sells commercial generic USB drivers for Windows.
• Jungo: Another vendor of generic USB drivers.
• Thesycon: Another vendor of generic USB drivers.
• JUSB: A project to provide a generic USB library for the Java platform, similar to libusb. The Windows support is still incomplete.

 Reference: http://libusb-win32.sourceforge.net/