Virtual CD-ROM switching utility: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:53, 6 September 2020

Revision as of 19:08, 1 January 2021

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{{Cleanup|reason=Style and grammar problems.|date=March 2016}}

'''Virtual CD-ROM switching utilities''' are programs to disable the [[RAM drive|virtual CD-ROM]] drive found on many devices.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pharscape.org/usb_modeswitch.html |title=USB_modeswitch Virtual CD-ROM switching utility |access-date=2010-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100212225215/http://www.pharscape.org/usb_modeswitch.html |archive-date=2010-02-12 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A virtual CD-ROM switching utility is a mode switching tool for controlling "flip flop" (multiple device) [[Universal Serial Bus|USB]] gear. Several new USB devices (especially high-speed wireless [[Wide area network|WAN]] equipment, there seems to be a [[chipset]] from [[Qualcomm]] offering that feature) have their [[Microsoft Windows]] device drivers on board; when plugged in for the first time they act like a [[USB flash drive]] and start installing the device driver from there.

After that (and on every consecutive plugging) this device driver switches the mode internally, the storage device vanishes (in most cases), and a new device (like a USB [[modem]]) shows up. The [[Wireless WAN]] (WWAN) gear maker Option calls that feature "ZeroCD (TM)". With USB sniffing programs and [[libusb]] it is possible to eavesdrop the communication of the MS Windows device driver, to isolate the [[Command (computing)|command]] or action that does the switching and to reproduce the same thing under the rule of Linux or the [[BSD]] variants.<ref name="usb_modeswitch">{{Cite web|url=http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/|title=USB_ModeSwitch - Activating Switchable USB Devices on Linux}}</ref>

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== External links ==

* [http://www.draisberghof.de/usb_modeswitch/ USB_ModeSwitch website]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100308110655/http://www.pharscape.org/ozerocdoff.html Ozerocdoff - an improved ZeroCD switching utility]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101124193109/http://libusb.org/ libusb website]