Linux cdc_acm device - unexpected characters sent to device

Question

I'm having trouble with unexpected characters being sent on a USB port with the cdc_acm driver. What makes this all the more perplexing is that the code runs fine on Ubuntu 12.04 (3.2 kernel) but fails (the subject of this question) on Centos 6 (3.6 kernel)

The USB device is a Bluegiga BLED112 Bluetooth Smart dongle. Its embedded microcontroler will reset any time there in unexpected input on it's USB interface.

The test code opens the port, writes 4 bytes (a hello message) and expects to read a response. The read never completes because the unexpected characters cause the device to reset which causes the hub to drop the device and re-enumerate.

To troubleshoot, here's what I've done:

• Downloaded the source code for the cdc_acm driver. Added a bunch of printk debug messages and stack_dumps to follow what's going on.
• I rmmod'd the "stock" cdc_acm and insmod'd my instrumented module. All the device enumeration works, right driver attached, etc.
• Since the code works on Ubuntu 12.04/Linux 3.2, I grabbed the 3.2 cdc_acm code and compiled that module on the Centos 6 / Linux 3.6 platform. Using that 3.2 module instead of the 3.6 module did not make a difference. I reverted to the 3.6 module.
• Turned on the debug file system with usbmon and watched the USB traffic. I can see that there are extra characters being sent on the USB interface.
• To watch what's going on, on top of the printk's in the cdc_acm module, I've merged the output of usb mon (cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/usbmon/3u | logger) and the output of the test application (scan_example /dev/ttyACM0 | logger -s) so I have a single stream of time correlated debug trail.
• The spurious characters sent on the USB endpoint are x5E x40 x5E x40 x5E x40 x5E x40 x41 (in ASCII its ^@^@^@^@A) which looks like some sort of probing or trying to get the attention of a modem These characters are sent immediately after the application's write() causes the 4 hello bytes to be sent to the end point.

• Since the cdc_acm device is supposed to be a modem, I tried to turn off the modem control by adding this to usb_device_id acm_ids[] in cdc_acm.c

  /* bluegiga BLED112*/
  { USB_DEVICE(0x2458, 0x0001),
  .driver_info = NOT_A_MODEM,
  },
  

• Recompiled and insmod'd and the syslog show that this was recognized (quirks is 8), but no change in function.

Neither NetowrkManager nor modem-manager are running, but I still suspect that there is some sort of modem control function going on somewhere, I just don't know where.

Here's a annotated debug log (MDV prefixes those printk's that I added to cdc_acm)

Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_bulk
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_done

Here are the 4 bytes sent by the application 00 00 00 01

Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df046a80 3672670191 C Bi:3:006:4 0 4 = 00000001
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: 1360797272.669690 write: data2: len=0 contains:

... and these additonal characters show up unexpectedly 5e 40 5e 40 5e 40....

Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df046a80 3672670232 S Bi:3:006:4 -115 128 <
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3cc5740 3672670297 S Bo:3:006:4 -115 1 = 5e
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1300 3672670332 S Bo:3:006:4 -115 1 = 40
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3cc5740 3672670347 C Bo:3:006:4 0 1 >
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3cc5740 3672670392 S Bo:3:006:4 -115 1 = 5e
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1180 3672670426 S Bo:3:006:4 -115 1 = 40
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1c00 3672670461 S Bo:3:006:4 -115 1 = 5e
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1840 3672670496 S Bo:3:006:4 -115 1 = 40
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1300 3672670591 C Bo:3:006:4 0 1 >

At this point we get a spontaneous disconnect.

Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: usb 3-1: USB disconnect, device number 6
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_bulk
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_done
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm read_bulk_callback
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV 1 acm_read_bulk_callback - urb 1, len 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV 3 acm_read_bulk_callback - non-zero urb status: -71
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_bulk
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_done
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm read_bulk_callback
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV 1 acm_read_bulk_callback - urb 1, len 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV 3 acm_read_bulk_callback - non-zero urb status: -71
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_bulk
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_done
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm read_bulk_callback
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV 1 acm_read_bulk_callback - urb 2, len 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1d80 3672670629 S Bo:3:006:4 -115 1 = 5e
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV 3 acm_read_bulk_callback - non-zero urb status: -71
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1300 3672670677 S Bo:3:006:4 -115 1 = 41
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3cc5740 3672670802 C Bo:3:006:4 0 1 >
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1180 3672671019 C Bo:3:006:4 0 1 >
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1c00 3672671237 C Bo:3:006:4 0 1 >
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: dfbf8c00 3672673193 C Ii:3:001:1 0:2048 1 = 02
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: dfbf8c00 3672673207 S Ii:3:001:1 -115:2048 4 <
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3c26c00 3672673221 S Ci:3:001:0 s a3 00 0000 0001 0004 4 <
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_disconnect
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: Pid: 29, comm: khubd Tainted: G           O 3.5.3-1.el6.elrepo.i686 #1

Stack trace at the time of disconnect

Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: Call Trace:
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<f82dabc5>] acm_disconnect+0x35/0x1f0 [cdc_acm]
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c13835db>] usb_unbind_interface+0x4b/0x180
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3c26c00 3672673239 C Ci:3:001:0 0 4 = 00010100
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c1318bfb>] __device_release_driver+0x5b/0xb0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c1318d05>] device_release_driver+0x25/0x40
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c1317f0c>] bus_remove_device+0xcc/0x130
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c131612f>] ? device_remove_attrs+0x2f/0x90
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c1316275>] device_del+0xe5/0x180
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c1380326>] usb_disable_device+0x96/0x240    Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c1379f91>] usb_disconnect+0x91/0x130
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_bulk
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c137a2c0>] hub_port_connect_change+0xb0/0xa60
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c1380f4e>] ? usb_control_msg+0xce/0xe0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm acm_write_done
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c137b296>] hub_events+0x536/0x810
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3c26c00 3672673243 S Co:3:001:0 s 23 01 0010 0001 0000 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3c26c00 3672673250 C Co:3:001:0 0 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c1065bdf>] ? finish_wait+0x4f/0x70
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c137b5aa>] hub_thread+0x3a/0x1d0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1840 3672673260 C Bo:3:006:4 -71 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c1065a70>] ? wake_up_bit+0x30/0x30
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c137b570>] ? hub_events+0x810/0x810
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c106564c>] kthread+0x7c/0x90
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3c16c80 3672673292 C Bi:3:006:4 -71 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1d80 3672673453 C Bo:3:006:4 -71 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3c16d40 3672673553 C Bi:3:006:4 -71 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c10655d0>] ? kthread_freezable_should_stop+0x60/0x60
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm read_bulk_callback
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: [<c14dedbe>] kernel_thread_helper+0x6/0x10
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV 1 acm_read_bulk_callback - urb 3, len 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV:cdc-acm stop_data_traffic
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3d19500 3672674474 C Ii:3:006:2 -108:64 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost kernel: MDV 2 acm_read_bulk_callback - disconnected
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df2e1300 3672674636 C Bo:3:006:4 -71 0
Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: f3c16140 3672674753 C Bi:3:006:4 -71 0

Answer 1

The ^@^@^@^A string which is sent to your device is the result of echo performed by the terminal subsystem in the kernel in response to incoming bytes from your device.

This line in your log:

Feb 13 18:14:32 localhost cpcenter: df046a80 3672670191 C Bi:3:006:4 0 4 = 00000001

actually means that your device sent 4 bytes to the computer (Bi means “Bulk endpoint, input”). By default all terminal devices have echo enabled, therefore the kernel echoes those bytes back to the device, but because those bytes were in the control character range, they are echoed in the escaped form: ^@^@^@^A. Those echoed bytes are also sent in separate 1-byte write calls, which corresponds to 1-byte bulk out URBs in the subsequent log.

You need to fix your test program so that it turns off echo and other tty processing before trying to communicate with your device. The cfmakeraw() function can be used for this if your test program is in C/C++.

The program might be working in Ubuntu just because some other program happens to touch the port before your test program and change the port settings to turn off echo.