Sharing a USB camera with usbipd in a docker container

[guillaumenibert]

Hello everyone, thank you for your work, I am looking to share my USB camera to a docker container.
Based on discussion #315, I performed these steps:

• I recompiled the Linux kernel for WSL with camera driver support,
• then attached my camera to WSL using usbipd,
• tested the camera on the Ubuntu default WSL distribution with cheese: it works.
• /dev/video0 is visible in the docker-desktop distro, but not in the container:

I tried this tip (#315) from @NikLeberg:

Hi @salvatoreTorsello I use usbipd successfully to forward a USB device to a docker container. For that I had to map -v /dev:/dev and add --privileged so the container can access the devices. Depending on you device you have to install drivers for it in WSL2 thought.

Adapting it, I tried these configurations (docker compose file), with or without privileges, with or without the devices part,

...
privileged: true
volumes:
   - /dev:/dev
   - /run/desktop/dev:/dev
   - /run/desktop/dev/video0:/dev/video0

devices:
   - /dev:/dev
   - /run/desktop/dev:/dev
   - /dev/video0:/dev/video0
...

When I do lsusb in my container, the camera is visible, but the output of ls /dev does not list video0.

I am interested in any advice, whether or not it concerns usbipd or rather WSL/Docker.

Best regards,

Guillaume

--
Docker Desktop for Windows 4.28.0
Usbipd: 4.1.1-dev (from #856)
Host: Windows 11 23H2
Container: Ubuntu 22.04

[dorssel]

@guillaumenibert
I moved this to the discussions, as it appears that usbipd-win itself is not the issue. But it is very much related, of course. You could maybe also mention it somewhere at https://github.com/microsoft/WSL to reach a wider audience.

[guillaumenibert]

Hello, thank you very much. I just posted it in WSL's GitHub repository here: microsoft/WSL#11230 and in the Docker Desktop for Windows repo: docker/for-win#13940.

[NikLeberg]

Hi @guillaumenibert!
I still successfully use the same method with --volume=/dev:/dev --privileged to access a USB device (JTAG programming adapter, Altera Blaster) from within a docker container. I currently use the versions:

• usbipd-win 4.0.0
• docker client: 24.0.7
• docker server: 24.0.7
• wsl2: 2.0.14.0 (kernel: 5.15.133.1-1)
• container: Ubuntu 22.04.4

I don't recommend on downgrading to these versions. Just wanted to let you know a configuration that worked.

I have to say though that I'm not sure how the program I'm using in the container (Intel Quartus) is actually accessing the USB JTAG programmatically. I.e. i don't know if it is accessed via the raw USB device tree (in /dev/bus/usb/...) or as a major/minor device node under /dev/XYZ. It just works ™🤷‍♂️.

[NikLeberg]

Regarding the last section: I just remembered that I also used to access devices like /dev/ttyUSB0 i.e. with the major/minor numbers within another container of mine (also with volume and privileged). But that I haven't tested/used in quite some time. Let's say around one year ago it did still work... Not really helpful sorry, but maybe some small indications.