Disable USB ports

[CyrilRoy]

Hello,

How can I disable USB ports on Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspian OS ?

[jpers]

I know two ways to do this, but I am afraid both of them are incomplete solutions, and perhaps a complete one is not possible, since other peripherals use USB bus (for example, Ethernet).

First solution: Cut the power to the ports you do not need. This will effectively disable the use of USB-powered peripherals (that is almost all of them), unless a (malicious?) user will power the peripherals externally.
Fortunately, this solution is possible entirely in userland - there is utility called hub-ctrl for that, and it works on Raspberry Pi.

viewtopic.php?p=813383#p813383

Second solution: Reconfigure the kernel and remove drivers for all devices you want to prevent to communicate via USB ports. I successfully compiled kernel version that did not support HID devices (keyboard/mouse) so USB mouse or keyboard did not work.

Third solution, which would be a complete solution, is to remove USB support from the kernel, but this may break many other things, Ethernet first. Try and report.

[rpdom]

Note that disabling power to the ports is an all or nothing action. You can't disable individual ports.

[jpers]

Note that disabling power to the ports is an all or nothing action. You can't disable individual ports.

You can, according to the link I posted (I tested the method, it works, but did not observed all the ports, since only one peripheral was attached in my setup). Unless things changed since the post I link to.

One of the ports (number 1, i think) cannot be controlled individually, the other three could be. I suspect number 1 is connected to Ethernet, so it is impractical as well.

[mahjongg]

there is no hardware to disable individual ports. Some models of PI do not even have any means of disabling power to any USB port.

You can measure the resistance between the VCC lines of the USB ports, its zero, meaning all power lines are wired together.

[jpers]

This is not how I remember it, but will check in a few days and report back.

[smoneck]

Works for me on RPi 3b:

To shut off power on USB ports (this shuts power on ethernet as well):
echo '1-1' | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind

To turn power back on
echo '1-1' | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind

[smoneck]

I just found: On at least RPi3b power of all [USB-ports] and [Ethernet+WiFi] can be switched separately. There is a tool called uhubctl doing this using libusb (port 1 for Ethernet+Wifi, port 2 for USB).

[RobW77]

Hi smoneck,
I tried it with uhubctl but it doesn't work.

I installed the package:
sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev

Then the command:
root@rs:~# sudo uhubctl -a 0 -p 2

Follows by error message:
sudo: uhubctl: command not found

Can you help me please?

[robbes]

RobW77 -
Did you follow the installation instructions at https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl ?

[drgeoff]

You CANNOT control the power to individual USB ports on a RPi. The power pins are commoned by PCB tracking. No software can change that.

[spicygal808]

Works for me on RPi 3b:

To shut off power on USB ports (this shuts power on ethernet as well):
echo '1-1' | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind

To turn power back on
echo '1-1' | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind

This worked perfectly!

[kolsi]

You CANNOT control the power to individual USB ports on a RPi. The power pins are commoned by PCB tracking. No software can change that.

A bit older topic, but just a question. Is the statement above true for RPi3B+ ?

Code: Select all

~$ lsusb -t
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=dwc_otg/1p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/3p, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 6, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=lan78xx, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 7, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 480M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 4, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M

If I execute echo '1-1.2' | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind (where numbers are BUS-PORT.SUBPORT) it disables the port with USB storage only, Ethernet and other ports still work.

[drgeoff]

You CANNOT control the power to individual USB ports on a RPi. The power pins are commoned by PCB tracking. No software can change that.

A bit older topic, but just a question. Is the statement above true for RPi3B+ ?

Code: Select all

~$ lsusb -t
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=dwc_otg/1p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/3p, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 6, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=lan78xx, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 7, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 480M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 4, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M

If I execute echo '1-1.2' | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind (where numbers are BUS-PORT.SUBPORT) it disables the port with USB storage only, Ethernet and other ports still work.

AIUI that statement is still true. Note that turning off power to a USB port is NOT the same thing as disabling it.

[kolsi]

Yes, you are right. I did some experiments and it is possible to disable individual ports '1-1.x.y' but they are still powered in the disabled state (e.g. USB flash disk is off, its LED is off but I can still charge my phone in the disabled port). Only completely disabling '1-1' turns the power off.