Plans for USB support in Codespaces via the Web Serial API

[zfields]

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Do you support USB connections from Codespaces, or have any plans to do so?

I'm an embedded firmware engineer, and I use .devcontainers to build/flash/debug my hardware.

I develop on Linux, so I can pass --device /dev/bus/usb on the command line to Docker, then I am able to flash and debug my firmware from my VSCode devcontainer.

Perhaps, if Codespaces could gain access to USB via the Web Serial API, then I would be able to build, flash and debug my embedded device directly from Codespaces. This would be a game changer!

Here is an example of my configuration, in case it helps.

.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

// For format details, see https://aka.ms/devcontainer.json. For config options, see the README at:
// https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-dev-containers/tree/v0.205.2/containers/docker-existing-dockerfile
{
    "name": "Sparrow Development Environment Dockerfile",

    // Sets the run context to one level up instead of the .devcontainer folder.
    "context": "..",

    // Update the 'dockerFile' property if you aren't using the standard 'Dockerfile' filename.
    "dockerFile": "../Dockerfile",

    // Set *default* container specific settings.json values on container create.
    "settings": {},

    // Add the IDs of extensions you want installed when the container is created.
    "extensions": [
        "marus25.cortex-debug",
        "ms-vscode.cpptools",
        "ms-vscode.vscode-serial-monitor",
        "shardulm94.trailing-spaces",
        "twxs.cmake",
        "zfields.cortex-debug-dp-stm32wl"
    ],

    // Use 'forwardPorts' to make a list of ports inside the container available locally.
    // "forwardPorts": [],

    // Uncomment the next line to run commands after the container is created - for example installing curl.
    // "postCreateCommand": "apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl",

    // Uncomment when using a ptrace-based debugger like C++, Go, and Rust
    "runArgs": [
        "--device=/dev/bus/usb/"
    ],

    // Uncomment to use the Docker CLI from inside the container. See https://aka.ms/vscode-remote/samples/docker-from-docker.
    // "mounts": [ "source=/var/run/docker.sock,target=/var/run/docker.sock,type=bind" ],

    // Uncomment to connect as a non-root user if you've added one. See https://aka.ms/vscode-remote/containers/non-root.
    "remoteUser": "blues"
}

[legomushroom]

Hey @zfields,

No, unfortunately, Codespaces do not support USB-forwarding at the moment.

I was working on a GitHub CLI extension that can do such forwarding though. It currently lacks the isochronous transfers support, but I don't think they are commonly used during the dev time.

I was looking for dogfooders to test in a broader set of projects, would you be interested in trying it for your scenarios?

[justyn]

This could allow the use of Codespaces for a whole category of projects that currently have to stay local-only.

Is it still be developed?

[zfields]

My goal is to perform embedded development from a container.

I don't quite understand how the GitHub CLI would interact with the container. Can you ELI5 for me?

[rwbot]

@zfields I'd be interested in this tool as well. Could I also dogfood?

[johnchapman-eaton]

@zfields I'd be interested to dogfood.

[SL2021-Dev]

Same here...
Using ESP-IDF
Would it correct this issue...

@SL2021-Dev ➜ /workspaces/SL-v2 (main) $ source esp-idf/export.sh
Setting IDF_PATH to '/workspaces/SL-v2/esp-idf'
Detecting the Python interpreter
Checking "python" ...
Python 3.10.8
"python" has been detected
Adding ESP-IDF tools to PATH...
WARNING: tool openocd-esp32 version v0.11.0-esp32-20221026 is installed, but returned non-zero exit code (127) with error message:
/home/codespace/.espressif/tools/openocd-esp32/v0.11.0-esp32-20221026/openocd-esp32/bin/openocd: error while loading shared libraries: libusb-1.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

ERROR: tool openocd-esp32 has no installed versions. Please run '/workspaces/SL-v2/esp-idf/install.sh' to install it.

[gblikas]

@legomushroom could i get access as well? i’d like to incorporate this for unity-desktop-lite. I assume this tool is the natural evolution from microsoft/vscode#161018?

[bsiever]

@legomushroom Hi --- This sounds really useful! What's the status of this work? Any updates?

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[zfields]

This is sadly dormant, but it would be nice to hear if there are any plans from a PM related to the project.

[justyn]

I noted that the related Codespaces network bridge has been archived: https://github.com/github/gh-net
Does this mean that this kind of functionality is no longer desirable?

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[zfields]

This is a disappointing outcome from the VSCode team. There has obviously been a lot of interest in this topic from the community.

Can ANYONE from Microsoft please comment on this?

It would be nice to hear something, even if you have to give us the unfortunate news that this has been deprioritized and will NEVER happen.

[bsiever]

For what it's worth, I have developed a solution that fits my needs / context (a course in digital logic that interacts with an FPGA):

1. I created a Node backend that serves a frontend application. The Node server runs in the dev container/image and utilizes port forwarding to provide the frontend.
2. When it launches, the frontend is running locally/client-side. That client is able to talk to the USB device and could shuttle information back-and-forth to the backend, although I'm only using it to program hardware so it's a one way (file) transfer to the frontend.