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What would I need to do to convince an average desktop Linux computer (any flavour, let's say i686) to serve a folder as if it were a mass storage device over USB?

ie: I configure the desktop (with, I'm assuming, a USB Host device) and put my holiday snaps in /mnt/fake_drive. I plug a suitable USB cable from my USB Host device into my TV's USB port. My TV recognises a Mass Storage device has been plugged in and starts reading the images on that device, which are actually being delivered by the desktop from /mnt/fake_drive.

Is this possible?

(I should be clear, I'm aware I can share data over a network, I specifically want to fake a USB mass storage link)

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  • Wait... let me get this right. You want to direct connect your TV to your PC using USB cable (This will also means you'd have to find special cable where both ends are USB Type A)? Where your PC will be serving photos on that special folder? Some possible answers: superuser.com/questions/41841/… + datapro.net/products/usb-2-0-host-to-host-cable.html but I can't say for sure that it will work.
    – Darius
    May 27, 2013 at 10:25
  • You'd need more than just a special USB cable, the desktop would need a peripheral which could be a USB Client (rather than a USB Host, like most normal USB ports on computers). Many embedded devices (eg. mbed) provide this, but I'm wondering if it's possible without one of those.
    – JP.
    May 29, 2013 at 10:40
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    Not real answer, but maybe this could be a good starting point: linux-usb.org/gadget Dec 16, 2015 at 9:29

2 Answers 2

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Many years later I've (without remembering I'd posted this!) built such things with Raspberry Pi zeros using the USB gadget protocol Grzegorz Wierzowiecki posted about above.

Here's an article about doing just that; it's quite involved, and the steps have changed over time with different versions of the Raspberry Pi ecosystem, so I won't attempt to summarise here, but it's very doable!

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Well if you are for exemple on Ubuntu Server, you can do it with samba You can find guieds on how to install and configure it.

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  • I thought samba was a network protocol? Not a USB one?
    – JP.
    May 27, 2013 at 8:58
  • yes, you are right. If your tv has a network cable, mayby you can simply share a folder over lan and acces it with your tv?
    – Mihai
    May 27, 2013 at 9:00
  • I'm looking for a solution without using networks.
    – JP.
    May 29, 2013 at 10:38

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