Question

How can we query connected USB devices info in Python?
I want to get UID Device Name (ex: SonyEricsson W660), path to device (ex: /dev/ttyACM0)

And also what would be the best Parameter out of above info to be used as identifying the device whenever it’s connected again? (UID?)

I am working on Ubuntu 11.04.

ATM I have this code (using pyUSB)

busses = usb.busses()
for bus in busses:
  devices = bus.devices
  for dev in devices:
    print repr(dev)
    print "Device:", dev.filename
    print "  idVendor: %d (0x%04x)" % (dev.idVendor, dev.idVendor)
    print "  idProduct: %d (0x%04x)" % (dev.idProduct, dev.idProduct)
    print "Manufacturer:", dev.iManufacturer
    print "Serial:", dev.iSerialNumber
    print "Product:", dev.iProduct

The problem is I don’t get desired output, will paste one example:

<usb.legacy.Device object at 0x1653990>
Device: 
  idVendor: 4046 (0x0fce)
  idProduct: 53411 (0xd0a3)
Manufacturer: 1
Serial: 3
Product: 2

First I don’t get filename, it’s most important to me. I am assuming it is the /dev/ttyACM0 etc part. Second, I guess there was some UID of every USB device, or I should use both Vendor or Product id?

---

Apparently I have some setup issues, I think I am using wrong USB Library. (using libusb0.1) ATM. That’s why I get Device (dev.filename) string empty. If someone can please just tell that on what operating system he is using what USB Library and what version of PyUSB I think it will solve my problems.

Answer 1

I can think of a quick code like this.

Since all USB ports can be accessed via /dev/bus/usb/< bus >/< device >

For the ID generated, even if you unplug the device and reattach it [ could be some other port ]. It will be the same.

import re
import subprocess
device_re = re.compile("Bus\s+(?P<bus>\d+)\s+Device\s+(?P<device>\d+).+ID\s(?P<id>\w+:\w+)\s(?P<tag>.+)$", re.I)
df = subprocess.check_output("lsusb")
devices = []
for i in df.split('\n'):
    if i:
        info = device_re.match(i)
        if info:
            dinfo = info.groupdict()
            dinfo['device'] = '/dev/bus/usb/%s/%s' % (dinfo.pop('bus'), dinfo.pop('device'))
            devices.append(dinfo)
print devices

Sample output here will be:

[
{'device': '/dev/bus/usb/001/009', 'tag': 'Apple, Inc. Optical USB Mouse [Mitsumi]', 'id': '05ac:0304'},
{'device': '/dev/bus/usb/001/001', 'tag': 'Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub', 'id': '1d6b:0002'},
{'device': '/dev/bus/usb/001/002', 'tag': 'Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub', 'id': '8087:0020'},
{'device': '/dev/bus/usb/001/004', 'tag': 'Microdia ', 'id': '0c45:641d'}
]

Code Updated for Python 3

import re
import subprocess
device_re = re.compile(b"Bus\s+(?P<bus>\d+)\s+Device\s+(?P<device>\d+).+ID\s(?P<id>\w+:\w+)\s(?P<tag>.+)$", re.I)
df = subprocess.check_output("lsusb")
devices = []
for i in df.split(b'\n'):
    if i:
        info = device_re.match(i)
        if info:
            dinfo = info.groupdict()
            dinfo['device'] = '/dev/bus/usb/%s/%s' % (dinfo.pop('bus'), dinfo.pop('device'))
            devices.append(dinfo)
            
print(devices)