Bug 878737 - gpsd wrongfully claims generic USB to serial adapters
Summary: gpsd wrongfully claims generic USB to serial adapters
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED EOL
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: gpsd
Version: 19
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Douglas E. Warner
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2012-11-21 05:25 UTC by Alex G.
Modified: 2015-02-18 13:47 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2015-02-18 13:47:27 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Alex G. 2012-11-21 05:25:50 UTC
Description of problem:
Serial ports powered by PL2303 chips do not work. They are randomly transmitting data, but are not accessible by users in the dialout or plugdev groups.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
gpsd-3.5-1.fc17.x86_64

How reproducible:
ALWAYS

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Plug in PL2303 USB to serial adapter
2. try to access the serial port
  
Actual results:
TX LED on adapter randomly indicates data is transmitted.

$ picocom /dev/ttyUSB6 
[...]
FATAL: cannot open /dev/ttyUSB6: Device or resource busy

Expected results:
Serial port is usable.

Additional info:
$grep 2303 -r /etc/udev/rules.d/
reveals the following entry in /etc/udev/rules.d/99-gpsd.rules:

# Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port [linux module: pl2303]
ATTRS{idVendor}=="067b", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2303", SYMLINK+="gps%n", RUN+="/lib/udev/gpsd.hotplug"

That's just wrong. This is a generic USB to serial chip, and gpsd has no business claiming it.
There are a few other entries which refer to generic USB-to-serial adapters, which need to be removed.

Comment 1 Fedora End Of Life 2013-07-04 03:24:34 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 17 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 4 (four) weeks from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 17. It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time
this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 
'version' of '17'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 17's end of life.

Bug Reporter:  Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that 
we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 17 is end of life. If you 
would still like  to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it 
against a later version  of Fedora, you are encouraged  change the 
'version' to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 17's end of life.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

Comment 2 Fedora End Of Life 2013-08-01 10:54:10 UTC
Fedora 17 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2013-07-30. Fedora 17 is 
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further 
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of 
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.

Comment 3 Alex G. 2013-08-01 20:31:49 UTC
Same issue on F19.

Comment 4 Roy Rankin 2013-10-31 02:47:04 UTC
My BU-353 USB GPS mouse does in fact match this rule. So the issue would seem to be how to distinguish between a USB GPS and a USB tty using the pl2303 chip.
Here is my dmesg log for the BU-353.

[36565.876852] usb 1-1.3: new full-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
[36565.963195] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=2303
[36565.963208] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[36565.963214] usb 1-1.3: Product: USB-Serial Controller
[36565.963219] usb 1-1.3: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
[36565.963640] pl2303 1-1.3:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
[36565.965659] usb 1-1.3: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[36566.998256] pps pps0: new PPS source usbserial0
[36566.998269] pps pps0: source "/dev/ttyUSB0" added

Comment 5 Alex G. 2013-11-01 00:10:26 UTC
There is no way to consistently and reliably distinguish what is connected after the PL2303, hence why enabling this rule as a distro-wide default is outright dangerous. You don't know what's at the other end, and just send data. I have seen cash registers being opened by gpsd's probing process.

In a situation like this, it is the user's ultimate responsibility to identify the correct serial port (/dev/ttyUSBx), or to set up an automatic rule. More often than not, something else than a GPS will be connected to the PL2303.

Comment 6 Fedora End Of Life 2015-01-09 22:01:51 UTC
This message is a notice that Fedora 19 is now at end of life. Fedora 
has stopped maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 19. It is 
Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no 
longer maintained. Approximately 4 (four) weeks from now this bug will
be closed as EOL if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '19'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora 19 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora, you are encouraged  change the 'version' to a later Fedora 
version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

Comment 7 Fedora End Of Life 2015-02-18 13:47:27 UTC
Fedora 19 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2015-01-06. Fedora 19 is
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you
are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against the
current release. If you experience problems, please add a comment to this
bug.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.


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