Hi all,

The short intro to my question is, "Why can't the Scantool software find my USB OBD-II device?" Let me provide details. I want to diagnose my "check engine" light in my car. The product we're talking about is by company Autoenginuity. Scantool is their software that comes with the OBD-II USB cable. The cable plugs into the car under the dashboard. The other end of the cable is USB, and plugs into my laptop PC. The Scantool software runs under Windows just fine. However, I want to use my laptop which now has Ubuntu 12.04, with wine installed. I am able to start the Scantool program under wine, but the software can't communicate with any of comm ports, com1 through com10 (because I get a message telling me this). Here is what I have so far:
Ubuntu 12.04
uname -r
3.2.0-26-generic


~$ lsusb before plugging in the device gives:
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0402:9665 ALi Corp. Gateway Webcam

~$ lsusb after plugging in the device gives:
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0402:9665 ALi Corp. Gateway Webcam
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 1808:5555

So, I'll assume vendorid=1808 productid=5555

While in the /dev folder, I also did ls > ~/before.txt, before plugging in the device, and ls > ~/after.txt after plugging in the device.
Then, cd ~/
diff before.txt after.txt
18a19
> hidraw0
175a177
> usb

in folder /usb is file hiddev0
I DO NOT see a file /dev/ttyUSB0 or anything similar.

If I type:
~$ dmesg -c
to clear the buffer, plug the device in, dmesg again and I get the following:
[ 534.548115] usb 2-2: new low-speed USB device number 5 using uhci_hcd
[ 534.813724] generic-usb 0003:1808:5555.0004: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.00 Device [Multiplex Engineering USB to OBD-2] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2/input0

Again, I'll assume vendorid=1808 productid=5555. This is my device.

My question is, What does "on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2/input0" from above mean?

I've tried creating a symbolic link in /dev by command:
ln -s /dev/usb/hiddev0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1
or
ln -s /dev/hidraw0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1
or
ln -s /dev/ttyS0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1
(I replaced 0 above with 1 thru 10, replaced com1 with com2 thru com10,
all these didn't work).
I tried the suggestions at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1339775
namely,
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x1808 product=0x5555
but then after running dmesg again, I DID NOT see any messages with the word "attached", such as
"usb 1-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0"
I only saw the following:
[ 4253.524147] usb 2-2: new low-speed USB device number 2 using uhci_hcd
[ 4254.422816] generic-usb 0003:1808:5555.0001: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.00 Device [Multiplex Engineering USB to OBD-2] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2/input0
[ 4254.422893] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 4254.422901] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[ 4280.120573] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial
[ 4280.120642] USB Serial support registered for generic
[ 4280.120730] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
[ 4280.120739] usbserial: USB Serial Driver core

again the same output from:
diff before.txt after.txt
18a19
> hidraw0
175a177
> usb

And Scantool still does not communicate to any com ports.
Any thoughts on how to find out what named device in /dev is being assigned?
Do I need to create my own device driver as in this youtube video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IDL0...ure=plpp_video
so that when I run dmesg I see something like
"usb 1-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0" ?
How do I get it to "attach" to a name that I can create a symbolic link to in ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1 ?

Thanks in advance

p.s. some extrainfo:
lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation N10 Family DMI Bridge (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation NM10 Family LPC Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)


some info from:
lshw
netbook
description: Notebook
product: AOD255 (NetTopSku)
vendor: Acer
version: V3.05(DDR3)
serial: XXX
width: 64 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.6 dmi-2.6 vsyscall32
configuration: boot=normal chassis=notebook family=Intel_Mobile sku=NetTopSku uuid=XXX
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: AOD255
vendor: Acer
physical id: 0
version: V3.05(DDR3)
serial: Base Board Serial Number
slot: Base Board Chassis Location
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: Acer
physical id: 0
version: V3.05(DDR3)
date: 08/12/2010
size: 1MiB
capacity: 1984KiB
capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd

*-usb:0
description: USB controller
product: N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:6080(size=32)
*-usb:1
description: USB controller
product: N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:20 ioport:6060(size=32)
*-usb:2
description: USB controller
product: N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.2
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:21 ioport:6040(size=32)
*-usb:3
description: USB controller
product: N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.3
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:22 ioport:6020(size=32)
*-usb:4
description: USB controller
product: N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.7
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:22 memory:58204400-582047f

While it looks like all of the USB intermediate layers seem to be working, there is still a driver layer required to talk to the end node of the system. For example, a USB-Serial dongle requires a driver such as the FTDI driver for the USB-serial chip in the dongle. It is probable that such a driver is required in your case.
As I understand it, the ODB2 standard uses CANbus as its datalink layer (correct me if I'm wrong), so you may get lucky by loading one of the standard CANbus drivers to talk to the device. Alternatively, there is the Ocera/Lincan open source driver collection, which may provide support for your device. I have no idea whether that would get you anything that would translate to something wine could use.

Good work posting a thorough set of info transcriptions. I wish more people could do that much homework before posting.
Sorry not to be more helpful.

--- rod.

Almost every car parts store here offers free obd-II code read outs.

Unless this device is from a big tool company like Sun or Snapon or OTC or such you won't get the data you really need. These cheap usb deals only tell you a fault code. You need a real scan tool, not a code reader to really diag your car. You would also need training to decide what to look for both in open and closed loops.

Take it to the dealer and just pay the money. Even their techs don't know how to use their own tools.

Unless this device has drivers, you would be unlikely to build them. It is not easy unless you have detailed information and a similar driver to use as test reference. Even if you had windows source it would be difficult to get it to work. They also have access to national support and factory manuals.