[U-Boot-Users] ethernet over usb

[Bryan O'Donoghue]

Rodolfo Giometti wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I need to allow my board to TFTP data through an USB connection.
> 
> I'm just writing the USB device support for Alchemy au1100 and then
> I'm going to port usbnet from linux to u-boot in order to add a new
> "usbnet" device.
> 
> I'd like to know if someone else is doing something similar or is
> interested at this project in order to join the efforts.
> 
> Ciao,
> 
> Rodolfo
> 

Greetings Rodolfo.

If you look in Das U-Boot USB git tree you will see an implementation of 
Linux-Gserial and CDC ACM. Somebody from TI did the original 
implementation of g_serial and I added in CDC ACM.

I've actually transferred u-boot.bin over such a link via USB as part of 
my testing for usbdcore_mpc8xx, so if the transfer of files is what you 
are after perhaps just implementing usbdcore_au1100 yourself and using 
the higher layer usbtty.c would suffice, for your purposes.


Alternatively you may really need to implement Ethernet over the USB.

If you want to do that then there are probably two things to consider.

1. RNDIS - the Microsoft standard, works with Linux too.
2. CDC Ethernet - A USB standard that Microsoft has chosen not to 
implement in Windows (AFAIK) and is Linux (and possibly *BSD) only.

If going for Ethernet over the USB I'd suggest the thing to do is 
something similar as has been done in usbtty.c, with some high level 
Ethernet device (usb_ethernet.c ?) that knows about the cdc_ethernet and 
rndis_ethernet protocols.

I'd be happy to collaborate with you to implement the 'other' one or 
both of the above; i.e. if you do RNDIS I'll do CDC ethernet or 
vice-versa, I'd say with two people working on it, it would be fairly 
easy to do.


Bryan

-- 
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
- Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.