Unplug and plug in again a USB device in the terminal

Question

For years, I have been dealing with this Ubuntu bug where my mouse freezes soon after booting and then periodically freezes after that. To fix it, I have to physically unplug the usb transceiver for the mouse and plug it back in. From my research, this bug happens with USB wireless Windows mice when dual booting Linux and Windows.

Is there a way I can programmatically (from the terminal) unplug the USB transceiver instead of doing it physically? I want to achieve this in my startup bash script.

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04

Edit: I solved my problem but it doesn't really relate to my question.

In the file..

/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/runtime-pm.conf

I had to make

CONTROL_RUNTIME_AUTOSUSPEND=0

This fixes the mouse bug I was experiencing for years.

Answer 1

I wrote a script to show how I’d do that:

#!/bin/bash

port="1-1.1" # as shown by lsusb -t: {bus}-{port}(.{subport})

bind_usb() {
  echo "$1" >/sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind
}

unbind_usb() {
  echo "$1" >/sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind
}

unbind_usb "$port"
# sleep 1 # enable delay here
bind_usb "$port"

First you need to get the bus and port number of the usb port in question. You can do that with lsusb and any device you recognize in lsusb’s output, I use a Sandisk pendrive here:

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f2:b39a Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 112: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 019: ID 04d9:1603 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 018: ID 0424:2504 Standard Microsystems Corp. USB 2.0 Hub
Bus 001 Device 022: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
$ lsusb -t
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/3p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/8p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 22, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 18, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 19, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 19, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
        |__ Port 7: Dev 112, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
        |__ Port 7: Dev 112, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
        |__ Port 8: Dev 5, If 1, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
        |__ Port 8: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M

From the output of lsusb you get the bus and device number of the device, then search this device in the output of lsusb -t to get the bus and port number (sometimes with subports). The syntax is:

1-2.3 # for Bus 1 Port 2 Subport 3 – strip leading zeroes!

Use this as port in the script. Now you just need to make it executable with chmod +x /path/to/script and run it with root permissions:

sudo /path/to/script

I didn’t need one for my pendrive, but it may be necessary for you to add a delay between unbinding and binding again, that’s what the commented out sleep 1 line is for – you can experiment with the values, e.g. sleep 0.5 for half a second.

Note that this approach shows how to disable and enable again a certain USB port, if you want a specific device to be unbound and rebound again you’ll have to use the same USB port for this to work. One could think of a way to parse lsusb’s output to dynamically get the bus and port number of a specific device every time the script is called, this would allow you to use any USB port, but I feel that would be an overkill here.

^{Suggestions taken from this linux.com blog article.}

Answer 2

#!/bin/bash

port="usb1" # replace '1' with actual bus number as shown by lsusb -t: {bus}-{port}(.{subport})

bind_usb() {
  echo "$1" >/sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind
}

unbind_usb() {
  echo "$1" >/sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind
}

unbind_usb "$port"
# sleep 1 # enable delay here
bind_usb "$port"

Similarly to previous answers, this will reset the hub. If you observe the usb traffic in a program such as wireshark, you'll see that the previous answers don't cause the device to be re-enumerated, but simply restart the device driver. Restarting the hub goes a little deeper in the usb tree of the kernel and forces the device to completely re-enumerate.

Answer 3

you can also use ioctl to send a reset to the device in question - assuming it's still responsive

   /* usbreset -- send a USB port reset to a USB device */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>

#include <linux/usbdevice_fs.h>


int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    const char *filename;
    int fd;
    int rc;

    if (argc != 2) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: usbreset device-filename\n");
        return 1;
    }
    filename = argv[1];

    fd = open(filename, O_WRONLY);
    if (fd < 0) {
        perror("Error opening output file");
        return 1;
    }

    printf("Resetting USB device %s\n", filename);
    rc = ioctl(fd, USBDEVFS_RESET, 0);
    if (rc < 0) {
        perror("Error in ioctl");
        return 1;
    }
    printf("Reset successful\n");

    close(fd);
    return 0;
}

you would call like this

sudo ./usbreset /dev/bus/usb/002/004

not my code, but I don't know who to attribute to

Answer 4

I've created a Python script that simplifies the whole process.

Save the script below as reset_usb.py or clone this repo.

Usage:

python reset_usb.py help  # Show this help
sudo python reset_usb.py list  # List all USB devices
sudo python reset_usb.py path /dev/bus/usb/XXX/YYY  # Reset USB device using path /dev/bus/usb/XXX/YYY
sudo python reset_usb.py search "search terms"  # Search for USB device using the search terms within the search string returned by list and reset matching device
sudo python reset_usb.py listpci  # List all PCI USB devices
sudo python reset_usb.py pathpci /sys/bus/pci/drivers/.../XXXX:XX:XX.X  # Reset PCI USB device using path /sys/bus/pci/drivers/.../XXXX:XX:XX.X
sudo python reset_usb.py searchpci "search terms"  # Search for PCI USB device using the search terms within the search string returned by listpci and reset matching device

Script:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
import fcntl

instructions = '''
Usage: python reset_usb.py help : Show this help
       sudo python reset_usb.py list : List all USB devices
       sudo python reset_usb.py path /dev/bus/usb/XXX/YYY : Reset USB device using path /dev/bus/usb/XXX/YYY
       sudo python reset_usb.py search "search terms" : Search for USB device using the search terms within the search string returned by list and reset matching device
       sudo python reset_usb.py listpci : List all PCI USB devices
       sudo python reset_usb.py pathpci /sys/bus/pci/drivers/.../XXXX:XX:XX.X : Reset PCI USB device using path
       sudo python reset_usb.py searchpci "search terms" : Search for PCI USB device using the search terms within the search string returned by listpci and reset matching device       
       '''


if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print(instructions)
    sys.exit(0)

option = sys.argv[1].lower()
if 'help' in option:
    print(instructions)
    sys.exit(0)


def create_pci_list():
    pci_usb_list = list()
    try:
        lspci_out = Popen('lspci -Dvmm', shell=True, bufsize=64, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, close_fds=True).stdout.read().strip().decode('utf-8')
        pci_devices = lspci_out.split('%s%s' % (os.linesep, os.linesep))
        for pci_device in pci_devices:
            device_dict = dict()
            categories = pci_device.split(os.linesep)
            for category in categories:
                key, value = category.split('\t')
                device_dict[key[:-1]] = value.strip()
            if 'USB' not in device_dict['Class']:
                continue
            for root, dirs, files in os.walk('/sys/bus/pci/drivers/'):
                slot = device_dict['Slot']
                if slot in dirs:
                    device_dict['path'] = os.path.join(root, slot)
                    break
            pci_usb_list.append(device_dict)
    except Exception as ex:
        print('Failed to list pci devices! Error: %s' % ex)
        sys.exit(-1)
    return pci_usb_list


def create_usb_list():
    device_list = list()
    try:
        lsusb_out = Popen('lsusb -v', shell=True, bufsize=64, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, close_fds=True).stdout.read().strip().decode('utf-8')
        usb_devices = lsusb_out.split('%s%s' % (os.linesep, os.linesep))
        for device_categories in usb_devices:
            if not device_categories:
                continue
            categories = device_categories.split(os.linesep)
            device_stuff = categories[0].strip().split()
            bus = device_stuff[1]
            device = device_stuff[3][:-1]
            device_dict = {'bus': bus, 'device': device}
            device_info = ' '.join(device_stuff[6:])
            device_dict['description'] = device_info
            for category in categories:
                if not category:
                    continue
                categoryinfo = category.strip().split()
                if categoryinfo[0] == 'iManufacturer':
                    manufacturer_info = ' '.join(categoryinfo[2:])
                    device_dict['manufacturer'] = manufacturer_info
                if categoryinfo[0] == 'iProduct':
                    device_info = ' '.join(categoryinfo[2:])
                    device_dict['device'] = device_info
            path = '/dev/bus/usb/%s/%s' % (bus, device)
            device_dict['path'] = path

            device_list.append(device_dict)
    except Exception as ex:
        print('Failed to list usb devices! Error: %s' % ex)
        sys.exit(-1)
    return device_list


if 'listpci' in option:
    pci_usb_list = create_pci_list()
    for device in pci_usb_list:
        print('path=%s' % device['path'])
        print('    manufacturer=%s' % device['SVendor'])
        print('    device=%s' % device['SDevice'])
        print('    search string=%s %s' % (device['SVendor'], device['SDevice']))
    sys.exit(0)

if 'list' in option:
    usb_list = create_usb_list()
    for device in usb_list:
        print('path=%s' % device['path'])
        print('    description=%s' % device['description'])
        print('    manufacturer=%s' % device['manufacturer'])
        print('    device=%s' % device['device'])
        print('    search string=%s %s %s' % (device['description'], device['manufacturer'], device['device']))
    sys.exit(0)

if len(sys.argv) < 3:
    print(instructions)
    sys.exit(0)

option2 = sys.argv[2]

print('Resetting device: %s' % option2)


# echo -n "0000:39:00.0" | tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/xhci_hcd/unbind;echo -n "0000:39:00.0" | tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/xhci_hcd/bind
def reset_pci_usb_device(dev_path):
    folder, slot = os.path.split(dev_path)
    try:
        fp = open(os.path.join(folder, 'unbind'), 'wt')
        fp.write(slot)
        fp.close()
        fp = open(os.path.join(folder, 'bind'), 'wt')
        fp.write(slot)
        fp.close()
        print('Successfully reset %s' % dev_path)
        sys.exit(0)
    except Exception as ex:
        print('Failed to reset device! Error: %s' % ex)
        sys.exit(-1)


if 'pathpci' in option:
    reset_pci_usb_device(option2)


if 'searchpci' in option:
    pci_usb_list = create_pci_list()
    for device in pci_usb_list:
        text = '%s %s' % (device['SVendor'], device['SDevice'])
        if option2 in text:
            reset_pci_usb_device(device['path'])
    print('Failed to find device!')
    sys.exit(-1)


def reset_usb_device(dev_path):
    USBDEVFS_RESET = 21780
    try:
        f = open(dev_path, 'w', os.O_WRONLY)
        fcntl.ioctl(f, USBDEVFS_RESET, 0)
        print('Successfully reset %s' % dev_path)
        sys.exit(0)
    except Exception as ex:
        print('Failed to reset device! Error: %s' % ex)
        sys.exit(-1)


if 'path' in option:
    reset_usb_device(option2)


if 'search' in option:
    usb_list = create_usb_list()
    for device in usb_list:
        text = '%s %s %s' % (device['description'], device['manufacturer'], device['device'])
        if option2 in text:
            reset_usb_device(device['path'])
    print('Failed to find device!')
    sys.exit(-1)