USB-HID-Reporter

Command-line utility to read HID Reports from USB devices.
Tested with *NIX/x64 and OpenWRT/MIPS devices.

Install instructions

A pre-compiled version is present in the dist folder.

*NIX / x86-x64 Devices

(If running a 32bit machine, build from source)

• Install the libhidapi-libusb0 library. Debian/Ubuntu based: sudo apt-get install libhidapi-libusb0
• Plug the device to be inspected. Discover the VendorID/ProductID with the 'dmesg' command.
• Copy the file usb-hid-reporter/dist/x64/usb-hid-reporter.x64.bin to some working dir.

Usage

sudo ./usb-hid-reporter VENDOR_ID PRODUCT_ID REPORT_SIZE

Ex:
sudo ./usb-hid-reporter 0x1111 0x2222 64
while(true); do sudo ./usb-hid-reporter 0x1111 0x2222 64

Expected output: (run without arguments to view help)
{38,198,102,192,1,28,54,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0}

VENDOR_ID/PRODUCT_ID: Hexadecimal - More info: www.linux-usb.org.
REPORT_SIZE: Decimal - Length of USB Report in bytes.
OUTPUT: Decimal, CSV, brackets enclosing each report.

Openwrt based devices

Tested in MIPS/ar71xx (D-Link DIR505);
Compatible with other devices/platforms as well, but may require rebuilding from source.
The following steps assumes a device with internet connection and SSH access.

• Enter the usb-hid-reporter folder in the host machine. (or appropriate folders of OpenwrtSDK if built from source)

• Copy the program binary to the device:
  scp dist/mips_ar71xx/usb-hid-reporter.mips.bin root@192.168.1.1:/root

• Install pre-requisites:

opkg update  
opkg install libusb-compat libusb-1.0  
opkg install kmod-hid kmod-hid-generic kmod-usb-hid

• Copy required extra libs:

scp dist/mips_ar71xx/usr/lib/libhidapi-libusb.so.0 root@192.168.1.1:/usr/lib  
ssh root@192.168.1.1 'ln -s libhidapi-libusb.so.0 /usr/lib/libhidapi-libusb.so'

• Reboot may be necessary

• Run: ssh root@192.168.1.1 '/root/usb-hid-reporter.mips.bin 0x1111 0x2222 64'

Building from source:

Platform x64

• Working folder: usb-hid-reporter/src/x64
  Content description:
  Main program: chipcap-hidapi.c
  External lib: hidapi folder

• If hidapi lib was downloaded from external source (ie. newer)

cd hidapi  
make clean  
make all  
cd ..  

• Build and link:

g++ -c -Ihidapi/hidapi usb-hid-reporter.c -o usb-hid-reporter.o  
g++ -Lhidapi/libusb/.libs usb-hid-reporter.o -lhidapi-libusb -o usb-hid-reporter.x64.bin  
rm usb-hid-reporter.o  

• Run: sudo ./usb-hid-reporter.x64.bin
  Known issue: it's expected a segmentation fault in the Openwrt version if no device is found.

Platform Openwrt/MIPS/ar71xx/others

• Download the OpenWRT SDK:
  https://downloads.openwrt.org/barrier_breaker/14.07/ar71xx/generic/OpenWrt-SDK-ar71xx-for-linux-x86_64-gcc-4.8-linaro_uClibc-0.9.33.2.tar.bz2
  (or other appropriate SDK version, depending on your SO version / architecture)

• Extract indo a work dir. Ex: /code/OpenwrtSDK

• Copy the whole folder 'usb-hid-reporter'
  from: src/mips_at71xx/OpenwrtSDK_complement/package/usb-hid-reporter to: workdir/OpenwrtSDK/package/
  It's not necessary to add extra hidapi/usb libs; It will be used the ones from OpenwrtSDK.

• Build (in the SDK root folder): make V=99

• Output will be in OpenWrtSDK/build_dir/target-mips_34kc_uClibc-0.9.33.2/chipcap/ipkg-ar71xx/usb-hid-reporter/bin

• Install into the device and run with the instructions above.
  Known issue: it's expected a segmentation fault in the Openwrt version if no device is found.

Known issues / TODO:

• In MIPS/ar7xxx/OpenWRT program gives a segmentation fault if no devide is found.
• Be able to run without root privileges.
• Implement scan for SERIAL_NUMBER to differentiate products of same VID/PID.
• Verify if all libs listed in openwrt-install are really required.
• Try some static linking to dismiss the installation of extra libs (usefull for openwrt devices with storage shortage)

References

- Based upon the code of: http://www.signal11.us/oss/hidapi/
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/samples/hidraw/hid-example.c
- http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/obtain.firmware.sdk