Surj

Deva Seetharam

i run debian sarge on a dual processor (coppermine) machine. on this machine, i have setup the linux toolchain for gumstix development.

as the next step, i wanted to access the gumstix from this machine over usbnet. here is the chronicle of my failed attempts:

the most recent (as of 11/20/2005) version of debian kernel is 2.6.8. however, the gumstix usbnet requires kernels 2.6.10 and newer.

obviously, i needed to install a new custom kernel. when i was younger, i used to be thrilled about building new kernels and see shiny new kernels coming up. nowadays, i dread the tedium of building new kernels. i hypnotised myself into building one.

i downloaded 2.6.14.1 source from kernel.org and compiled it with the following configurations required for interfacing with gumstix (as explained in gumstix tutorial ):

CONFIG_USB_USBNET=y
CONFIG_USB_ARMLINUX=y
CONFIG_USB_GADGET=y
CONFIG_USB_GADGET_SELECTED=y
CONFIG_USB_GADGET_NET2280=y
CONFIG_USB_NET2280=y
CONFIG_USB_GADGET_DUALSPEED=y
CONFIG_USB_ETH=y
CONFIG_USB_ETH_RNDIS=y

(you need to set CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y to be able to select ETH_RNDIS.)

crossing my fingers and toes, i rebooted the machine. thank God, the new kernel came up. here is the response for uname -a:

Linux xxxx 2.6.14.1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Nov 19 23:17:29 EST 2005 i686 GNU/Linux

when i plug a gumstix board into one of the usb ports, i
get the following lines in dmesg:

usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and
address 7
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 2 choices
usb0: register 'cdc_subset' at usb-0000:00:04.2-1,
Linux Device, 9e:53:81:a8:c6:c0

i can even assign an ipaddress (192.168.1.104) to usb0
interface using ifconfig usb0.

when i do nmap 192.168.1.104 (ipaddress
of gumstix), i get the following ouptut:
PORT STATE SERVICE
9/tcp open discard
13/tcp open daytime
22/tcp open ssh
25/tcp open smtp
37/tcp open time
113/tcp open auth

however, when i try to ssh into gumstix, all i get is password prompts again and again. (btw, i can login to the same gumstix board from a windows xp box using the same password.)

if anyone has any ideas to resolve this problem, pls. email me at devs AT usa DOT net.