Template:Networking rutos manual usb tools

Template:Networking rutos manual fw disclosure

Summary

The USB Tools page is used to manage services related to the device's USB connector.

This chapter of the user manual provides an overview of the USB Tools page in {{{name}}} devices.

If you're having trouble finding this page or some of the parameters described here on your device's WebUI, you should turn on "Advanced WebUI" mode. You can do that by clicking the "Advanced" button, located at the top of the WebUI.

General

The General section is used to manage global USB settings. It consists of two subsections:

USB Mount Settings

The USB Mount Settings section is used to set the transfer type (synchronous or asynchronous) for the USB device.

Synchronous ensures that all changes to the according filesystem are immediately flushed to disk. Enabling this will drastically lower the life expectancy of your USB device.

Mounted File Systems

The Mounted File Systems list displays USB mass storage devices (MSD) currently attached to this device.

Field	Value	Description
Filesystem	filepath; default: /dev/sd*	The filesystem of the attached USB MSD.
Mount Point	filepath; default: /mnt/sd*	The root directory of the mounted filesystem.
Available	string; default: none	Displays available storage information for a mounted USB MSD.
Used	string; default: none	Displays used storage information for a mounted USB MSD.
In Use	string; default: none	Indicates whether a USB MSD is currently in use by some device service or not.

The 'Unmount' button next to each entry in the list is used to unmount an attached USB device. Please make sure to unmount a USB device before physically detaching it from the {{{name}}}.

The 'Refresh' is used to refresh the information in the Mounted File Systems list. If you attach a new USB device and cannot see it in the list, try clicking the 'Refresh' button.

Printer Server

The Printer Server feature provides the possibility to configure access to a printer that is connected to the USB port of the device. After the printer is connected to the device's USB port and configured, it can be utilized by users in the local network (LAN, WiFi) or remotely.

The 'Add' button lets you add and manage additional printers. To configure a printer instance, click the Edit button located next to it:

Field	Value	Description
Enable	off \| on; default: off	Turns USB printer support on or off.
Device	filepath; default: /dev/usb/lp0	Printer's device file.
Port	integer [9100..9109]; default: 9100	Printer's TCP port.
Bidirectional mode	off \| on; default: on	Turns bidirectional mode on or off.

For step-by-step instructions on how to use a printer with {{{name}}}, [[How to set up a USB printer (Windows, {{{name}}})|click here]].

USB to Serial

The device's USB connector can also be used as a serial port.

Field

Value

Description

Enabled

off | on; default: off

Turns the USB to Serial service on or off.

Baud rate

300 | 1200 | 2400 | 4800 | 9600 | 19200 | 38400 | 57600 | 115200; default: 115200

Data rate for serial data transmission (in bits per second).

Data bits

5 | 6 | 7 | 8; default: 8

Number of data bits for each character

Parity

None | Odd | Even; default: None

In serial transmission, parity is a method of detecting errors. An extra data bit is sent with each data character, arranged so that the number of 1 bits in each character, including the parity bit, is always odd or always even. If a byte is received with the wrong number of 1s, then it must have been corrupted. However, an even number of errors can pass the parity check.

None (N) - no parity method is used
Odd (O) - the parity bit is set so that the number of "logical ones (1s)" has to be odd.
Even (E) - the parity bit is set so that the number of "logical ones (1s)" has to be even.

Stop bits

1 | 2; default: 1

Stop bits sent at the end of every character allow the receiving signal hardware to detect the end of a character and to resynchronise with the character stream. Electronic devices usually use one stop bit. Two stop bits are required if slow electromechanical devices are used.

Flow control

None | RTS/CTS | Xon/Xoff; default: None

In many circumstances a transmitter might be able to send data faster than the receiver is able to process it. To cope with this, serial lines often incorporate a "handshaking" method, usually distinguished between hardware and software handshaking.

RTS/CTS - hardware handshaking. RTS and CTS are turned OFF and ON from alternate ends to control data flow, for instance when a buffer is almost full.
Xon/Xoff - software handshaking. The Xon and Xoff characters are sent by the receiver to the sender to control when the sender will send data, i.e., these characters go in the opposite direction to the data being sent. The circuit starts in the "sending allowed" state. When the receiver's buffers approach capacity, the receiver sends the Xoff character to tell the sender to stop sending data. Later, after the receiver has emptied its buffers, it sends an Xon character to tell the sender to resume transmission.

Serial type

Console

Storage Memory Expansion

The Storage Memory Expansion function provides the possibility to expand the device's flash memory with a USB Mass Storage Device (MSD) and use the extra memory to install additional software packages. This section provides instruction on how to do just that. However, there are a few prerequisites and warnings to take note of before using memory expansion.

To be eligible for memory expansion, the USB MSD must meet the following restrictions.

The MSD must be the last one (chronologically) inserted.
If you are using a USB hub, the target MSD must be the last one attached to the hub.
No important data on the MSD as it will be wiped during expansion setup!

When expansion is enabled, do not detach the USB device as this will delete the data stored on it. Changes made to the device configuration while expansion was enabled will disappear after it is disabled.

Enabling memory expansion

To successfully expand the flash memory of your device follow the steps described below.

Attach a USB Mass Storage Device (MSD) to the USB connector on the device and go to the Services → Storage Memory Expansion page.
Set the 'Enable storage expansion' slider to 'on' and click 'Save & Apply'.
You will see a pop-up asking for confirmation. Take note that if you continue from this point on:
- your USB device's memory will be wiped and formatted to ext2 format;
- your device's current configuration will be backed up and restored to this point if the USB drive is removed or memory expansion is disabled;
- the entire procedure may take a very long time and includes a reboot at the end; exact time will vary depending on the size of the MSD (larger size will take longer; for example, using a 128 GB drive will take about 2 hours to fully set up, while a 16 GB will only take about 5 minutes).
Click 'Continue' to proceed.
If all is in order you should see a 'Formatting MSD...' message on the screen. This indicates that the MSD is being formatted and integrated with the system. This procedure can take a long time and ends with a reboot of the device.
Your device's flash memory will be expanded once the reboot has finished. In order to check, log in to the WebUI and look to the 'System' widget in the 'Overview' page. Hover your mouse cursor over the 'FLASH' memory indicator; you should see an increase to the device's flash memory.

Disabling memory expansion

To successfully disable memory expansion follow the steps described below.

Go to the Services → Storage Memory Expansion page.
Set the 'Enable storage expansion' slider to 'off' and click 'Save & Apply'.
You will see a pop-up asking for confirmation. Take note that if you continue from this point on:
- your USB device's memory will be wiped and formatted to NTFS format;
- your device's configuration will be restored to the point it was before memory expansion;
- the entire procedure will take up to 2 minutes including a reboot.
Click 'Continue' to proceed.
If all is in order you should see a 'Formatting MSD...' message on the screen. This indicates that the MSD is being formatted and detached from the system. This procedure can take up to a couple of minutes and ends with a reboot of the device.
Your device's flash memory will be restored to normal once the reboot has finished. In order to check, log in to the WebUI and look to the 'System' widget in the 'Overview' page. Hover your mouse cursor over the 'FLASH' memory indicator; you should see your device's flash memory return to its regular size.

Network Shares

The Network Shares section is used to manage Network-attached storage (NAS) such as USB drives and hard drives. The {{{name}}} device supports the following file system architectures:

FAT
FAT32
NTFS

General Settings

The General section is used to set up Samba - a software solution for using the Server Message Block (SMB) networking protocol, which provides shared file access between nodes on a computer network. Refer to the figures and table below for more information about Samba configuration.

Field	Value	Description
Enable	off \| on; default: off	Turns Samba on or off.
Hostname	string; default: Router_share	Name of the Samba server.
Description	string; default: Router share	Short description about the Same server.
Workgroup	string; default: WORKGROUP	Name of the server's workgroup.
Share home-directories	off \| on; default: on	Allows system users to reach their home directories via network shares.

Edit Template

The Edit Template section is used to make modifications to the template that is used for generating the Samba configuration. This is the content of the /etc/samba/smb.conf.template file from which your Samba configuration will be generated. Values enclosed by pipe symbols ('|') should not be changed. They get their values from the 'General Settings' tab.

Format USB

The Format USB section contains only one button that is used for formatting an attached USB drive.

Shared Directories

The Shared Directories section is used to configure access to the device's files and directories, including USB storage drives. The list of Shared Directories is empty by default; click the 'Add' button in order to create a new configuration:

The newly added Shared Directory configuration should look similar to this:

Field	Value	Description
Name	string; default: none	Name of a shared directory.
Path	filepath; default: /mnt/	Path to a shared directory. To share an entire drive, choose an automatically generated path from this drop-down box (for example, /mnt/sda1). To share a specific directory on the drive, specify the full path to that directory (for example, /mnt/sda1/shared/video).
Allowed users	samba user(s); default: none	Samba user(s) that are permitted to access a Shared Directory. Users can be created from the Users menu tab.
Read-only	off \| on; default: off	Makes a Shared Directory read-only, which means the directory can only be accessed to view and read files (not write).
Browseable	off \| on; default: on	Makes a Shared Directory browsable; i.e., visible in shared directory network discovery.
Allow guests	off \| on; default: off	Turns guest access on or off. Guest access allows anonymous connections to a Shared Directory.
Delete	-(interactive button)	Deletes a Shared Directory configuration.

To connect to the router's SAMBA server from Windows, specify the address in this format:

\\smb_server_address\share_name

Replace smb_server_address with the IP address of this device or SAMBA share hostname; replace share_name with the name of the "share" (as specified in the 'Name' field). For example:

\\192.168.1.1\my_share \\Router_share\johns_files

Users

The Users section is used to create Samba users that can be granted access to Shared Directories. To add a new user, enter a custom username, password and click the 'Add' button.

The newly added User should appear in the Users list. To change the password of a Samba User, click the 'Edit' button located next to it:

This will redirect you to the Settings page for that User which should look similar to this:

[[Category:{{{name}}} Services section]]