I've gotten a lot of suggestions about what type of USB device I should use for my OLS tutorial (see here for original request). Seems a few people misunderstood my request. Here's a better description of what I am looking for:

• a cheap USB device that does not currently have a Linux driver written for it.
• the device must have specs availble for it, I am not going to reverse engineer the USB protocol for it, I don't have the time or energy to do that anymore.
• the device must be able to be purchased in mass quantities, and still in production.
• the device must be simple enough that an easy driver can be written.
• the device must have specs availble for it.
• the device must not already have a Linux driver written for it.

The last two are repeated as I got a lot of requests for unsupported, complex devices (like video devices, or audio devices, or isdn adapters) that are not documented, and the manufacturer is not willing to part with the specs.

I did get a lot of great links to some very neat devices. Here they are in no paticular order in case anyone else is interested:

• USB temperature device. I'll probably use this one, unless I find something else.
• [USB device used to teach Windows device driver courses.] (http://osronline.com/article.cfm?article=382) This looks nice, but a bit expensive. The site is very well done if you are intested in Windows driver information.
• Keyspan digital remote I got a few requests for this, I'll try to get ahold of my contacts at Keyspan to see if it's still being made and if I can get the specs for it.
• Phidget devices Thing is, Linux already supports almost all of their devices with a driver I helped write a while ago... They do have very nice devices if you are looking for some simple servo controllers and A/D convertors.
• PC Remote
• USB radio
• Basic do-it-yourself USB devices These look fun, but with the current dollar to euro conversion, a bit spendy for the tutorial.
• Hello Kitty Hub This looks like a lot of fun (who doesn't like Hello Kitty stuff), but no specs...

Again, thanks for the pointers, and keep them coming.

posted Mon, 23 May 2005 in [/diary]

So, as I guess people actually read this thing, might as well test it out with some small requests.

For OLS this year, I'm giving a tutorial where everyone gets a USB device and we all write a driver for it. Problem is, I'm having a hard time finding a USB device that doesn't already work on Linux... So, anyone have any ideas for a relatively cheap (less than $50.00 US) USB device that currently doesn't have a Linux driver. Some kind of fun LED device is always good, as everyone always likes to see lights blink.

On a totally different note, OSDL recently just laid off some very talented, and experienced Linux kernel developers and testers. These are subsystem and driver maintainer level kernel people, who really understand the community and how to get stuff done in the kernel and have loads of experience doing just that. OSDL cut them as part of a "budget reduction" restructure (my rants about how OSDL is currently being run are best left for another time. "Center of gravity for Linux" my ass...) Anyway, this means that there are some good people looking for Linux kernel related jobs. If anyone knows of any openings, feel free to let me know and I'll forward the information on to them.

posted Mon, 23 May 2005 in [/diary]