USBView on Linux

You can list your USB devices using lsusb. However, the USB subsystem of controllers, hubs and devices connected to them has the structure of a tree and it would be most convenient to view as such. USBView is a small GTK tool written by kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman that shows the topography of the devices connected to your USB subsystem in this tree format.

• Installing USBView is easy:

$ sudo apt install usbview

• This tool parses the information available from /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices and presents it nicely. Reading this file needs superuser permissions. You can read this information manually too:

$ sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices

• To invoke USBView:

$ sudo usbview

• In the tree presented by USBView, click on the controllers, hubs and devices connected to them to view information about them.

• Some of the information I typically look for:

  • Manufacturer
  • Serial Number
  • Speed
  • USB version (2 or 3)
  • Device class
  • Power needed (in mA)

Tried with: USBView 2.0, Linux 3.13.0-52-generic and Ubuntu 14.04