Is it possible to have the USB system create a /dev entry that more accurately describes the device that is connected? Take for example the FTDI USB-to-Serial device and driver. I may have several completely different devices on a USB hub but they all appear as /dev/ttyUSB0, /dev/ttyUSB1, /dev/ttyUSB2, etc. The problem is that today ttyUSB1 may be an RS-232 device from a given manufacturer and tomorrow it may be a USB LCD display from a totally different manufacturer.

USB diagnostic messages will show information about the hardware. Is there a way to have something like /dev/USBLCD and /dev/USBRS232 where the name is based on manufacturer data that the USB system reads?

I know the Mac OSX version of the FTDI driver does this.

Yes.

This is what udev is for.
You need to write a udev rule that can identify your device, by some unique attribute and always assign it a particular symlink eg /dev/specialdevice

Search on udev rules udevadm yourdistroname because different distros use different versions of udev

Unfortunately some devices do not have unique attributes like a serial number. This might help:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...evices-822879/

True, but I am not sure that this is the OP's problem.

And the link you posted, though relevant and interesting, remains "unresolved", with no follow-up.

Here is where I tried to explain how different USB devices that report themselves as "identical" (pl2303 comes to mind) could be differentiated by their physical location on the USB system. The downside is that you will always have to plug a particular device (that stupidly reports itself as identical to other devices, even though it isn't) into a particular, real, USB port connector.

Again, there has been no follow-up, so I do not know if the problem has been resolved.

Okay, great, udev rules are what I'm looking for.

But can you do the same thing in mdev from Busybox?

I don't run Busybox so I have have no idea. mdev isn't even installed on my PC.

Can't you do your own research?

Then post here with the specific problems you encounter.