Act as usb disk

[posterberg]

I am wondering if anyone knows of a driver that can make a usb port on my linux box to act as a usb disk, so that another computer that connects to it will see it as a usb drive.

Would be great if it also good make it look to be FAT32 formatted on the fly...

i.e. folder /home/user/usb_emultaded_disk will show up as as the root folder on the other computer as a FAT32 disk.

This would for my non-network-enabled stupid TV as it plays most things from USB drives.

YES, I already have xbmc running on the Linux box but it would be nice to also be able to use the built in media functionality in the TV...

[3rdalbum]

As far as I know, this is technically impossible on ordinary USB ports. You would end off short-circuiting your TV and USB controller.*

There is a type of USB port that can be used as either host or device, but unless your computer is a BeagleBoard you don't have one.

* In fact, I think the sale of USB A-to-A cables should be strictly controlled, and the USB-IF organisation should sue any device manufacturer that uses the USB logo and has their device connecting with an A-A cable.

[dandnsmith]

If you google for "usb network linux" you'll find several links to networking and usb (which is what you need)

It is important to remember that you need a cross-over usb cable to connect the two PCs - the standard one is useless, and it would connect read-read, and write-write.

HTH

[posterberg]

If you google for "usb network linux" you'll find several links to networking and usb (which is what you need)

It is important to remember that you need a cross-over usb cable to connect the two PCs - the standard one is useless, and it would connect read-read, and write-write.

HTH

Hmm, usb network sounds like networking... I need it to act as a disk and not as a network port...

[posterberg]

As far as I know, this is technically impossible on ordinary USB ports. You would end off short-circuiting your TV and USB controller.*

There is a type of USB port that can be used as either host or device, but unless your computer is a BeagleBoard you don't have one.

* In fact, I think the sale of USB A-to-A cables should be strictly controlled, and the USB-IF organisation should sue any device manufacturer that uses the USB logo and has their device connecting with an A-A cable.

Wouldn't it be possible if I use a cross-over cable? Does the hardware actually control what signals is sent on the cable? Can't any signaling on the wire be emulated? I do understand that you need to make a cable that won't short circuit things...

[P4man]

Perhaps you could look at buying a cheap NAS with USB. Hook it up to the tv through USB, and it would look like a USB drive to the tv (I guess), and hook it up on the LAN at the same time, so your PC can read/write to it. Well, Im actually not 100% sure thats possible, but sounds like worth looking in to

[justleen]

Wouldn't it be possible if I use a cross-over cable?.

There is no such thing as an USB-crossover cable...

[posterberg]

There is no such thing as an USB-crossover cable...

MMmm, no but one could be made I suppose... I would believe isn't it just a matter of making the ports electrically compatible. How hard can that be?

There doesn't seem to be any electrical differences on the computer and the disk side according to this page; http://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml

Doesn't this mean that I could solder my own cross-over cable if I wanted to?

[prshah]

can make a usb port on my linux box to act as a usb disk, so that another computer that connects to it will see it as a usb drive.

You can take a look at this thread Mass Storage Emulation but i don't know how useful it will be for you..

You can also take a peek at Linux-USB Gadget API Framework

[justleen]

because there is no difference in the cabling on either side does noet mean you could swap them around.. network != usb
The only thing I know that comes close to what you want, is MacOSX, which can use other Macs as external disks, which OSX does it over firewire