[Techtalk] USB hardware question

[Michael Carson]

     One additional question that's been bugging me is how do I tell what
device devices plugged into the USB ports are using?  I have an MP3
player that sometimes is /dev/sda and sometimes /dev/sdb, a serial port
that is /dev/ttyUSB0 that took the better part of a day to find, etc.
  It seems logical that this info should be found in /proc or /var/log/
but heck if I can find it.  Any ideas?

C.

Amanda Babcock wrote:

 >I'm trying to set up my computer for USB and I'm confused about the
 >hardware required.
 >
 >It doesn't have any USB ports that I'm aware of, but the manual for the
 >motherboard mentions USB in the part about support for a PS/2 mouse.
 >Back in 98 or so I bought a no-name USB PCI card, a Kouwell KW-580, and
 >installed it but was never able to make it work (not even under Windows).
 >
 >The USB card is currently not installed, but the machine must be detecting
 >the host controller on the motherboard because it shows the following
 >during boot-up (this is a FreeBSD system):
 >
 >Dec 11 22:34:05 mercury /kernel: uhci0: <VIA 83C572 USB controller> 
port 0x6100-0x611f irq 11 at device 7.2 on pci0
 >Dec 11 22:34:05 mercury /kernel: usb0: <VIA 83C572 USB controller> on 
uhci0
 >Dec 11 22:34:05 mercury /kernel: usb0: USB revision 1.0
 >
 >(Incidentally, the motherboard manual does not show a "VIA 83C572" 
anywhere
 >in the diagram...)
 >
 >So, my question is: do I *need* a USB card, or can I plug stuff into the
 >controller?  What's a USB controller anyway?  Am having trouble finding a
 >basic "What is USB" page out there.  Plenty of info on required drivers
 >and kernel configs for both Linux and FreeBSD, but nothing on "what the
 >heck is USB anyway".
 >
 >Amanda
 >_______________________________________________
 >Techtalk mailing list
 >Techtalk at linuxchix.org
 >http://www.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
 >
 >.
 >