Virtual CD-ROM switching utility: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:32, 24 September 2012

Revision as of 23:18, 7 October 2012

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{{Orphan|date=September 2012}}

'''Virtual CD-ROM switching utilities''' are programs to disable the [[VirtualRAM drive|virtual CD-ROM]] drive found on many devices.<ref>[http://www.pharscape.org/usb_modeswitch.html USB_modeswitch Virtual CD-ROM switching utility]</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]] stuff, there seems to be a [[chipset]] from [[Qualcomm]] offering that feature) have their [[Microsoft Windows]] device drivers onboard; 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>