Re: [gentoo-user] OT: PC as USB client

[Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk>]

On 16 Oct 2009, at 12:58, Alex Schuster wrote:
> daid kahl wrote:
>
>>> Not really specific to gentoo, except that I want to do this with a
>>> Gentoo PC: Is it possible to attach my Gentoo PC 'G' to another PC  
>>> 'W'
>>> (running Windows) via USB, so that G appears to be a removable  
>>> media to
>>> W? I think you need special USB cables with some electronics in the
>>> middlle for that, and I saw such a solution for Windows. Does  
>>> anybody
>>> know if this is possible with Linux?
>>
>> Did you consider something like an ethernet cable and using samba?  I
>> haven't used my Linux drive specifically in another Windows machine,
>> but samba works fine for using our network scanner (and I can browse
>> the relevant filesystems setup in Samba).
>
> The problem with this is that the PC is a closed system used for  
> medical
> ultrasound acquisitions, and I do not have access to it. So I cannot
> configure any shares, and have to use what is already configured. The
> software allows export of data to an USB stick, but I would like to  
> avoid
> having to move the stick around to the Linux PC afterwards.

The hack that springs to mind is to see if you can pick up an Openmoko  
Freerunner with a broken screen. I'd guess you might be able to pick  
one up for as little as $50 or so. It needs no SIM - you just connect  
it to your office wifi instead, configure it to act as a mass storage  
device and share the appropriate directory by Samba or NFS or whatever.

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Using_the_Neo_as_an_USB_Mass_storage_device

Configuring the device to boot up and automagically load the mass  
storage device kernel module - instead of the USB networking one,  
which is default - could be a bit tricky with a broken screen. But I  
doubt if you want to spend $200 on this, and I think that's about the  
going rate on a brand new Freerunner. I guess if you could buy one  
that the seller has proven working via ssh to USB - which is really  
standard on this device, it defaults to 192.168.0.202 - then you could  
get it to connect to your wifi and bind sshd to that interface, also.  
Once you know that's good and reliable, remove the USB interface from  
the sshd configuration, stop it from loading the USB ethernet module  
at boot and have it load the mass storage device module instead.

I do feel this is kinda a clumsy suggestion, to use a relatively  
expensive mobile phone - and such little of its functionality - for  
such an ostensibly-simple task. There must be other Linux-based  
devices which will pretend to be mass storage devices, and I wouldn't  
be at all surprised if some of them were quite cheap and readily  
available. But I have no idea what they might be.

Stroller.