Using FTDI USB 'direct D2xx' libraries
 

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this - happy to be corrected.

I am having problems porting an application from Win to Linux. It talks to an FTDI USB-serial chip. I am using the FTDI supplied 'direct D2xx' library (version 0.4.13). Installation, linking etc seems OK, as some functions seem to work OK.

However, my problem is that the function FT_GetDeviceInfoList() gives all nulls for the various information fields (eg description, serial number, manufacturer, etc). The functions FT_GetDeviceInfoDetail() and FT_ListDevices() fail similarly. The function FT_CreateDeviceInfoList() returns the correct number of devices connected (tested with 0,1 or 2 devices).

The system knows the correct information about the devices, checked by both the KDE program KInfoCenter->USBDevices, and the program 'usbview'.

I have tried removing the modules ftdi_sio and usbserial (/sbin/rmmod ....)

Has anyone had success/problems with using this library, especially running 2.6 kernel (I have 2.6.18, fedora 6) and version 0.4.13 of the FTDI library?

I have tried support at FTDI but they have not responded at all!

Thanks,
gl2008

As there have been no replies to my query, can anyone point me to another forum (either on LinuxQuestions or otherwise) that would be more appropriate?

Thankyou, gl2008

Did you try to run your program by root?

Since posting my initial question, that has been suggested to me (logging on as root) and yes, it does avoid the problems I had. However, this does not seem a very satisfactory way of working. Are there any other suggestions?

Thanks, gl2008.

My Linux system is Debian (sid) and the kernel version is 2.6.20.
I'm using FT245RL chip.

# lsusb
Bus 007 Device 013: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC

I tried a sample program (Simple) which is in the D2XX driver.
I had added following two lines:
#include <stdlib.h> //for malloc
#include <string.h> //for memset

And I changed following line;
int iNumDevs = 0; => DWORD iNumDevs = 0;

I succeeded compile of the source without any warning.
However the result was;

Number of devices is 1
Dev 0:
Flags=0x0
Type=0x0
ID=0x0
LocId=0x0
SerialNumber=
Description=
ftHandle=0x0
Error: FT_ListDevices(18)

I ran this program by root, there were no problem..

By the way. There is another library for FTDI chip.
http://www.intra2net.com/de/produkte/opensource/ftdi/

Thanks