[clue-tech] Fwd: Need a Linux device driver.

[Jed S. Baer]

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:58:40 -0600
David L. Anselmi wrote:

> dennisjperkins at comcast.net wrote:
> > Re USB drives, I have read that Windows powers down the USB port when
> > you tell it you want to remove the drive.  Linux unmounts it, but
> > doesn't power down the port since USB devices can be safely plugged
> > in and unplugged.
> 
> That may well be it (but how does the port power up when you plug back 
> into it?)
> 
> So there's a utility I can use to spin down my USB hard drive.  I'll 
> have to look for one to power down a USB port.

Well, I did a web search. I don't know quite what the value of this would
be, but apparently  this refers to turning off the 5V power on the port.
However, if no device is connected, or the device is in an off state,
then I don't know why it'd be drawing power anyways. I suppose there are
USB toys where you might want to turn them off without unplugging them.
But then I'm also seeing references to being able to "power off" the port
only by completely disabling it. That would seem to obviate any
possibility of an "auto-sense" working to re-enable it by detecting
insertion.

I'm also reminded of the old DOS "utility" for "washing" a floppy drive,
which used some sort of IOCTL operations to make the drive -- with disk
inserted -- make noises intended to sound like the various cycles of a
washing machine. See, flash and other solid-state devices are robbing the
latest generation of computer users of some real fun.

jed