Disconnect and reconnect USB port via cli

usb

I have a mouse that will stop working randomly. The solution is easy, unplug and replug. Is there a way I can do this via the command line though? Doing via command line has a few advantages.

  1. Doesn't wear out the connector.
  2. Faster.
  3. Saves me the trouble of crawling under my desk.
  4. Most important: prevents me from accidentally unplugging something else.

Plus I am curious how to do this.

OS is Debian 8.

Thanks!

Best Answer

Save the following to usbreset.c

/* 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;
}

The run the following commands in terminal:

  1. Compile the program:

    cc usbreset.c -o usbreset

  2. Get the Bus and Device ID of the USB device you want to reset:

    lsusb -t 

Bus#  4  
-Dev#   1 Vendor 0x1d6b Product 0x0001    
-Dev#   3 Vendor 0x046b Product 0xff10

  3. Make our compiled program executable:

    chmod +x usbreset

  4. Execute the program with sudo privilege; make necessary substitution for <Bus> and <Device> ids as found by running the lsusb command:

    sudo ./usbreset /dev/bus/usb/004/003

Resetting USB device /dev/bus/usb/004/003

Reset successful

Source of above program: http://marc.info/?l=linux-usb&m=121459435621262&w=2

Related Question