28 Feb
2013
28 Feb
'13
9:10 a.m.
On 02/28/2013 05:23 AM, David Riley wrote:
Is the device not Linksys-badged? It's not
terribly uncommon
for large companies (especially as large as Linksys has gotten)
to buy the design from a design house and slap their labels and
their own VID on. For example, I don't know how true it is at
this point, but at least a few years ago basically all Apple
and Microsoft USB mice were Logitech devices, including the
iMac's infamous "hockey puck" mouse (it said so on the PCB).
The VIDs were usually those of the company on the label.
No badging at all; just a stick-on barcode label (ZC55232132ZC). The
AXE OpenBSD port from FreeBSD has been around since 2004 and covers 27
different devices using the Asix chip family; from a variety of vendors,
including Apple, Linksys, Acer, Logitech, Netgear and Belkin.
The PID is not mentioned in the USB-IF database for Linksys.
All in all, it look to be a case of "by their chips shall ye know them,
not from their VID". I wonder if that's what USB-IF intended--I thought
it was more a matter of "here's a VID/PID pair that tells you what's
inside and what driver you need". Apparently not--it's just a fancy
barcode for the product.
At any rate, I'll add the VID/PID pair to the AXE driver and see what
happens.
I suppose this might be compared to a "Cheap Rolex Watch" type of thing,
except that the insides really *are* those of a Rolex watch.
A quick check of VID 0001 (Fry's Electronics!) apparently shows that the
practice of counterfeiting IDs is apparently widespread:
http://usb-ids.gowdy.us/read/UD/0001/7778
So why should anyone PAY for an ID from USB-IF? Many Chinese
manufacturers apparently don't.
--Chuck