Pass USB devices from a Windows host into a Docker container

pass-usb-from-win-host-to-docker-container.md

Pass USB devices from a Windows host into a Docker container

This is useful for embedded work in devcontainers.

1. Pass USB device from Windows host to WSL2

see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/connect-usb

• install usbipd-win on Windows host

• install usbip client tools in any WSL distro (prefered the default distro, but any distro should work, since all distros share the same kernel and thus the same devices)

  • Ubuntu: follow the standard installation process linked above
  • docker-desktop:
    • apk update
    • apk upgrade
    • update version numbers in /etc/apk/repositories to latest (e.g. "3.9" -> "3.16")
    • apk update --allow-untrusted
    • apk upgrade --available --allow-untrusted && sync
    • apk add alpine-keys --allow-untrusted
    • apk add linux-tools-usbip hwdata-usb hwids-usb usbutils

• attach device to WSL (if the usbip client tools are not installed in the default distro, use option usbipd -d <distro>)

2. Start docker container and pass device from WSL2 to container

• start docker container from windows host, use --device= option to pass device from WSL to container:
  • docker run -it --rm --device="/dev/bus/usb/<busid>/<devid>" <some image>
    • the busis:devid in WSL is not the same as on the host machine, use lsusb to get the id

Configure devcontainer:

• Use "runArgs": ["--device=/dev/bus/usb/<busid>/<devid>"] to pass device to container on devcontainer start