[libhid-discuss] Does libhid require a driver installation on windows?

[Xiaofan Chen]

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 4:51 PM, Gabriel Rossetti
<gabriel.rossetti at arimaz.com> wrote:

> On 4/11/07, Stephan Meyer wrote:
>>/ > On 4/10/07, Xiaofan wrote:
> />/ > The thing is that you need to uninstall the kernel HID driver and
> />/ > use the libusb-win32 device driver for this kind of HID device. This
> />/ > significantly reduces the usability of libusb-win32 for HID device
> />/ > under Windows. Yet many USB device disguise them as HID device
> />/ > just to avoid writing a device driver.
> />/ >
> />/ > Just wondering if it is possible to use an alternative backend
> />/ > (Windows HID apli) and make libusb a wrapper on top of it.
> />/ > I understand then it should perhaps be called libhid-win32 then.
> />/
> />/ This sounds like a great idea! I'll add a native HID backend to the
> />/ next version of the DLL. It should be possible to implement most of
> />/ libusb's features on top of Windows' hid.dll such as open, close,
> />/ interrupt-read/write and basic control messages. The rest can be
> />/ emulated/simulated.
> />
>
> (http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/libhid-discuss/2007-April/000136.html)
>
> I searched both libhid's and libusb's websites and I found nothing
> concerning this, does anyone know what the current status is? Does a
> driver have to be installed to use libhid on windows? Also, what is the
> difference/advantage with using libhid in comparison with directly using
> libusb's hid support?

You can try out the SVN version of libsub-win32 1.0. Last time
I tried it out, it has the HID backend (along with WinUSB backend
and the libusb-win32 device driver backend). It could find the device,
but interrupt read/write did not work.

The SVN version:
http://libusb-win32.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/libusb-win32/trunk/libusb1/

It seems to me that this has not been updated for a while. So I guess
it is still not working. But Stephan mentioned that he would try to
finish this with this year.

libhid is right now based on libusb.

Xiaofan