README.md

uhubctl

uhubctl is utility to control USB power per-port on smart USB hubs. Smart hub is defined as one that implements per-port power switching.

Original idea for this code was inspired by hub-ctrl.c by Niibe Yutaka: https://www.gniibe.org/development/ac-power-control-by-USB-hub

Compatible USB hubs

Note that very few hubs actually support per-port power switching. Some of them are no longer manufactured and can be hard to find.

This is list of known compatible USB hubs:

Manufacturer Product Ports USB VID:PID Release EOL AmazonBasics HU3641V1 (RPi issue) 4 3.0 2109:2811 2013

AmazonBasics HU3770V1 (RPi issue) 7 3.0 2109:2811 2013

Apple Thunderbolt Display 27" (internal USB hub) 6 2.0

2011 2016 Apple USB Keyboard With Numeric Pad (internal USB hub) 3 2.0

2011

Asus Z87-PLUS Motherboard (onboard USB hub) 4 3.0

2013 2016 B+B SmartWorx UHR204 4 2.0 0856:DB00 2013

B+B SmartWorx USH304 4 3.0 04B4:6506 2017

Belkin F5U701-BLK 7 2.0

2008 2012 Circuitco Beagleboard-xM (internal USB hub) 4 2.0 0424:9514 2010

Club3D CSV-3242HD Dual Display Docking Station 4 3.0 2109:2811 2015

CyberPower CP-H420P 4 2.0 0409:0059 2004

Cypress CY4608 HX2VL development kit 4 2.0 04B4:6570 2012

D-Link DUB-H4 rev D1 (black edition) 4 2.0 05E3:0608 2012

D-Link DUB-H7 rev A (silver edition) 7 2.0 2001:F103 2005 2010 D-Link DUB-H7 rev D1 (black edition) 7 2.0 05E3:0608 2012

Elecom U2H-G4S 4 2.0

2006 2011 Hawking Technology UH214 4 2.0

2003 2008 IOI U3H415E1 4 3.0

2012

j5create JUH470 (works only in USB2 mode) 3 3.0 05E3:0610 2014

Lenovo ThinkPad EU Ultra Dockingstation (40A20090EU) 6 2.0 17EF:100F 2015

Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Ultrabase 42X4963 3 2.0 17EF:1005 2008 2011 Lindy USB serial converter 4 port 4 1.1 058F:9254 2008

Linksys USB2HUB4 4 2.0

2004 2010 Maplin A08CQ 7 2.0 0409:0059 2008 2011 Microchip EVB-USB2517 7 2.0

2008

Moxa Uport-407 4 2.0

2017

Plugable USB3-HUB7BC 7 3.0 2109:0813 2015

Plugable USB3-HUB7C 7 3.0 2109:0813 2015

Plugable USB3-HUB7-81X 7 3.0 2109:0813 2012

Plugable USB2-HUB10S 10 2.0

2010

Raspberry Pi Model B+, 2 B, 3 B (port 2 only) 4 2.0

2011

Raspberry Pi Model 3 B+ 6 2.0 0424:2514 2018

Renesas uPD720202 PCIe USB 3.0 host controller 2 3.0

2013

Rosewill RHUB-210 4 2.0 0409:005A 2011 2014 Sanwa Supply USB-HUB14GPH 4 1.1

2001 2003 StarTech ST4200USBM 4 2.0 0409:005A 2004

Sunix SHB4200MA 4 2.0 0409:0058 2006 2009 Targus PAUH212U 7 2.0

2004 2009 Texas Instruments TUSB4041PAPEVM 4 2.1 0451:8142 2015

This table is by no means complete. If your hub works with uhubctl, but is not listed above, please report it by opening new issue at https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl/issues, so we can add it to supported table. In your report, please provide exact product model and add output from uhubctl.

Note that quite a few modern motherboards have built-in root hubs that do support this feature - you may not even need to buy any external hub. WARNING: turning off built-in USB ports may cut off your keyboard or mouse, so be careful what ports you are turning off!

USB 3.0 duality note

If you have USB 3.0 hub connected to USB3 upstream port, it will be detected as 2 independent virtual hubs: USB2 and USB3, and your USB devices will be connected to USB2 or USB3 virtual hub depending on their capabilities and connection speed. To control power for such hubs, it is necessary to turn off/on power on both USB2 and USB3 virtual hubs for power off/on changes to take effect. uhubctl will try to do this automatically (unless you disable this behavior with option -e).

Unfortunately, while most hubs will cut off data USB connection, some may still not cut off VBUS to port, which means connected phone may still continue to charge from port that is powered off by uhubctl.

Compiling

This utility was tested to compile and work on Linux (Ubuntu/Debian, Redhat/Fedora/CentOS, Arch Linux, Gentoo, openSUSE, Buildroot), FreeBSD and Mac OS X.

While uhubctl compiles on Windows, USB power switching does not work on Windows because libusb is using winusb.sys driver, which according to Microsoft does not support necessary USB control requests. This may be fixed if libusb starts supporting different driver on Windows.

First, you need to install library libusb-1.0 (version 1.0.12 or later):

• Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev
• Redhat: sudo yum install libusb1-devel
• MacOSX: brew install libusb, or sudo port install libusb-devel
• FreeBSD: libusb is included by default
• Windows: TBD?

To compile, simply run make - this will generate uhubctl binary.

Also, for Mac OS X you can install uhubctl with Homebrew custom tap:

brew tap mvp/uhubctl https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl
brew install --HEAD uhubctl

Usage

You can control the power on a USB port(s) like this:

uhubctl -a off -p 2

This means operate on default smart hub and turn power off (-a off, or -a 0) on port 2 (-p 2). Supported actions are off/on/cycle (or 0/1/2). cycle means turn power off, wait some delay (configurable with -d) and turn it back on. Ports can be comma separated list, and may use - for ranges e.g. 2, or 2,4, or 2-5, or 1-2,5-8.

On Linux, you may need to run it with sudo, or to configure udev USB permissions.

If you have more than one smart USB hub connected, you should choose specific hub to control using -l (location) parameter. To find hub locations, simply run uhubctl without any parameters. Hub locations look like b-x.y.z, where b is USB bus number, and x, y, z... are port numbers for all hubs in chain, starting from root hub for a given USB bus. This address is semi-stable - it will not change if you unplug/replug (or turn off/on) USB device into the same physical USB port (this method is also used in Linux kernel).

Notable projects using uhubctl

Project Description Morse code USB light Flash a message in Morse code with USB light Webcam USB light Turn on/off LED when webcam is turned on/off Cinema Lightbox Turn on/off Cinema Lightbox from iOS Home app Build Status Light Create a build status light in under 10 minutes Weather Station Reset Weather Station when it freezes sysmoQMOD Reset cellular modems when necessary Smog Sensor Raspberry Pi based smog sensor power reset Terrible Cluster Power on/off Raspberry Pi cluster nodes as needed Ideal Music Server Turn off unused USB ports to improve audio quality USB drives with no phantom load Power USB drives only when needed to save power USB drive data recovery Recover data from failing USB hard drive

Copyright

Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Vadim Mikhailov

This file can be distributed under the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License version 2.