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I am working with an Arduino Uno clone that uses the CH340G USB to TTL converter in lieu of the 16U2 found on the Uno. I see that most tutorials suggest downloading the CH340G drivers from what they call "a chinese website". I don't quite trust that site, is there any more trustworthy website where one might be able to acquire CH340G drivers for a modern Linux distro (preferably CentOS or Debian).

I ask here because devices with that chip seem to be popular in the Arduino community. If the unix stackexchange site would be a better place to ask then the question can be moved. Thank you.

EDIT: Apparently my system is having an issue with recognizing the device. Here are some specs:

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 04d9:3015 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. 
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0cf3:9271 Atheros Communications, Inc. AR9271 802.11n
Bus 003 Device 012: ID 045e:0040 Microsoft Corp. Wheel Mouse Optical
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

$ lsusb | wc -l
9

$ # Now I plug in the Uno clone
$ # Wait about a minute just to be sure...
$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 04d9:3015 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. 
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0cf3:9271 Atheros Communications, Inc. AR9271 802.11n
Bus 003 Device 012: ID 045e:0040 Microsoft Corp. Wheel Mouse Optical
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
$ lsusb | wc -l
9

$ uname -a
Linux happiness 4.4.0-47-generic #68-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 26 19:39:52 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS \n \l

My entire dmesg file can be found on pastebin, here is the end of it:

[37253.943739] usb 3-6: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[37254.159669] usb 3-6: new full-speed USB device number 15 using xhci_hcd
[37254.159841] usb 3-6: Device not responding to setup address.
[37254.363858] usb 3-6: Device not responding to setup address.
[37254.567744] usb 3-6: device not accepting address 15, error -71
[37254.679654] usb 3-6: new full-speed USB device number 16 using xhci_hcd
[37254.679756] usb 3-6: Device not responding to setup address.
[37254.883917] usb 3-6: Device not responding to setup address.
[37255.087716] usb 3-6: device not accepting address 16, error -71
[37255.087749] usb usb3-port6: unable to enumerate USB device
Community
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dotancohen
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2 Answers2

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Linux doesn't need drivers (indeed, the whole concept is pretty alien to Linux users).

The CH340G is fully supported by the default kernel in all distros I have ever used. On my Ubuntu machine the CH340G on my NodeMCU is detected automatically:

[ 8195.450566] usb 4-1: new full-speed USB device number 2 using uhci_hcd
[ 8195.630710] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=7523
[ 8195.630714] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 8195.630716] usb 4-1: Product: USB2.0-Serial
[ 8196.675137] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial
[ 8196.675153] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
[ 8196.675166] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for generic
[ 8196.677581] usbcore: registered new interface driver ch341
[ 8196.677600] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for ch341-uart
[ 8196.677620] ch341 4-1:1.0: ch341-uart converter detected
[ 8196.690670] usb 4-1: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Nothing to download, nothing to install, nothing to risk the security of your system with.

Majenko
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"Linux doesn't need drivers (indeed, the whole concept is pretty alien to Linux users)."

I feel alienated, however this information is incorrect. I have at least two Ubuntu machines that did not recognize the CH340g chip. One is Linux Mint 18.2 32bit the other is a Linux Mint 19 64bit. I used the 'driver' that I downloaded from the site in question and guess what? It is the exact same driver that NodeMCU uses. For those that want or need to download the driver, but don't want to visit a 'suspicious site' just go here nodemcu-dev and you will find three flavors: Linux, MAC and Windows. Strange that they have an MIT license for their own software.

For Linux, just extract the archive CH341SER_LINUX.ZIP, then open a terminal in the directory and use make && sudo make then load the module ahem.. driver with (may need to use sudo) insmod /{path-to-your-extracted-folder}/ch34x.ko or reboot.

Now, I am not arguing whether or not Linux comes with the module, because I see two (one for each kernel) on just one of my systems located at /lib/modules/{x.x.x-xx}-generic/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/ch341.ko, however the one that is needed comes from the Chinese site in question that happens to be the same place where NodeMCU got theirs (or possibly some other site) for it to be recognized.

Also, I don't get how someone can buy Chinese products (or from anywhere else) and be afraid to visit their site.

AlienatedAndConflicted
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