Find USB device details in Linux/Unix

Today we will see how to list USB devices in Linux and their properties such as speed, BUS, class, type details etc. This is part of our on going hardware detection series. We already covered following stuff.

What is USB?

USB(Universal Serial Bus) is a standerd developed to replace different types of BUS's available. This is a solution deviced to elemenate vender lockdown of hardware ports, so that BUS's will be identical across different devices from different venders. USB devices solve one more problem i.e. speeds. USB devies can reach up 5GB/s as of this writing where as PCI and serial devices have less speeds. Depending of USB frimware, its catagarize in to USB 1.0, USB 2.0, USB 3.0. USB have compititor in the from of Thunderbolt interface.
As a Linux User/administrator we should know USB bus details as well as devices connected. In this post we will see how to use lsusb command to display different USB properties.

Learn lsusb command with examples

Example1: List all the USB ports available

lsusb

 

Output:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05c8:021e Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd (Foxlink)
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0cf3:3005 Atheros Communications, Inc. AR3011 Bluetooth
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade

Let us try to understand above output in detail.
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade
Bus 002 : This is bus number where SanDisk USB stick is attached.
Device 003: This is the third device attached to bus 002, the other two devices are "Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub" and " Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub"
ID 0781:5567 is the number given to this SanDisk, The nember before : indicates the manufacture ID and number after : indicates device ID. To get more info on this visit Linux-USB site.
SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade is the name of manafacutre and device name.
Example 2: Check how many USB ports available in your machine so that we can connect USB devices to these ports.

find /dev/bus/ 

 

Output:

/dev/bus/
/dev/bus/usb
/dev/bus/usb/002
/dev/bus/usb/002/006
/dev/bus/usb/002/005
/dev/bus/usb/002/004
/dev/bus/usb/002/002
/dev/bus/usb/002/001
/dev/bus/usb/001
/dev/bus/usb/001/007
/dev/bus/usb/001/003
/dev/bus/usb/001/002
/dev/bus/usb/001/001

These ports may be internal or external to the system.
Example3 : Get detailed information of a USB device connected to a machine. Suppose I want to see information about /dev/bus/usb/002/005 device use below command

lsusb -D /dev/bus/usb/002/005

 

Output:

Device: ID 0951:1643 Kingston Technology DataTraveler G3 4GB
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0×0951 Kingston Technology
idProduct 0×1643 DataTraveler G3 4GB
bcdDevice 1.00
iManufacturer 1
iProduct 2
iSerial 3
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 32
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0×80
(Bus Powered)
MaxPower 200mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 8 Mass Storage
bInterfaceSubClass 6 SCSI
bInterfaceProtocol 80 Bulk-Only
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0×81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0×0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0×02 EP 2 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0×0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0

To know each of these types, click here.

Example 3: Get all the USB ports available and devices connected using verbose mode.

lsusb -v

 

Clipped output:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 9 Hub
bDeviceSubClass 0 Unused
bDeviceProtocol 1 Single TT
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0×8087 Intel Corp.
idProduct 0×0024 Integrated Rate Matching Hub
bcdDevice 0.00
iManufacturer 0
iProduct 0
iSerial 0
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 25
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xe0
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 0mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 9 Hub
bInterfaceSubClass 0 Unused
bInterfaceProtocol 0 Full speed (or root) hub
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0×81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0×0001 1x 1 bytes
bInterval 12 

 

Example 4: List all mass storage devices in your system.

lsusb -v | grep -Ei '(idVendor|Mass\ Storage)'

 

Output:

idVendor 0×2006
bInterfaceClass 8 Mass Storage
idVendor 0×0781 SanDisk Corp.
bInterfaceClass 8 Mass Storage
idVendor 0×0951 Kingston Technology
bInterfaceClass 8 Mass Storage

From the above output we can find that there are total three USB storage devices present on the machine.
Example 5: Find USB devices protocol version.

lsusb -v | grep -i bcdusb

 

Output:

bcdUSB 1.10
bcdUSB 2.00
bcdUSB 2.00
bcdUSB 2.00

Depending on the version, the speed varies. Below table give you clear idea about the speeds associated with these versions.

USB 1.10	12Mb/s
USB 2.00	480Mb/s
USB 3.00	5Gb/s

Example 6: Find USB device supported speeds by using tree structure option
 

lsusb -t

 

Otuput:

2-1.1:1.1: No such file or directory
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci_hcd/2p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=hub, Driver=hub/6p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 6, If 0, Class=stor., Driver=usb-storage, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 6, If 1, Class=vend., Driver=, 480M
|__ Port 2: Dev 7, If 0, Class=stor., Driver=usb-storage, 480M
|__ Port 3: Dev 5, If 0, Class=stor., Driver=usb-storage, 480M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci_hcd/2p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=hub, Driver=hub/6p, 480M
|__ Port 3: Dev 3, If 0, Class='bInterfaceClass 0x0e not yet handled', Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
|__ Port 3: Dev 3, If 1, Class='bInterfaceClass 0x0e not yet handled', Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
|__ Port 4: Dev 7, If 0, Class='bInterfaceClass 0xe0 not yet handled', Driver=btusb, 12M
|__ Port 4: Dev 7, If 1, Class='bInterfaceClass 0xe0 not yet handled', Driver=btusb, 12M

That's all we need to know for today good luck,stick around for similare adventures into the Digital world.