How to install usbip vhci_hcd drivers on an AWS EC2 Ubuntu Kernel Version

Question

It took me a while to figure out the problem, but I've been stuck and can't seem to find a solution to this.  
  
So basically I want to connect a local USB to a AWS EC2 Instance, and the way to do it on linux is through usbip, but the problem now lies with EC2 Kernel Instances, they dont have the drivers installed by default, and drives need the exact specs to be loaded on the system.  
  
Now, I have been trying to manually compile the drivers but I haven't managed to successfully accomplish that, the reason being is that the system does not compile the specific .ko module but at the same time, the other .ko modules installed, are not supported by the kernel.  
  
The steps I am following are taken from here on Ubuntu on how to build my kernel: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/BuildYourOwnKernel  
  
This is to pull the correct kernel version that is under use from the EC2, the other steps are:  
  
ubuntu@:~$ sudo cp /boot/config-$(uname -r) .config  
ubuntu@:~$ sudo cp /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/Module.symvers .  
ubuntu@:~$ sudo make menuconfig  
ubuntu@:~$ sudo make modules_prepare && sudo make M=drivers/usb/usbip  
ubuntu@:~$ sudo insmod drivers/usb/usbip/usbip-core.ko && sudo insmod drivers/usb/usbip/vhci-hcd.ko  
but even though the module compiles, there are no .ko drivers, nor the ones compiled work.  
  
Is there a way to make usbip work on AWS on a EC2 instance? Is there another solution to the usbip drivers?

Answer

So, I got an answer to this question from someone at AWS Support team. Hope this answer helps someone else in need.  
---  
You reached out to AWS Support, because you are looking to use usbip client on AWS EC2 instances, but found no required kernel modules (usbip-core, vhci-hcd) available on Ubuntu\[18|20] AMIs. You would like our assistance to address this and find the way to have usbip working on AWS EC2 instances.  
  
In my test environment in us-east-1 AWS Region, I launched test EC2 instances from the latest AMIs for Amazon Linux 2 (ami-0be2609ba883822ec), and  Ubuntu 20.04 (ami-0885b1f6bd170450c).  
  
I found that Amazon Linux 2 has required drivers:  
  # uname -r  
    4.14.209-160.339.amzn2.x86_64  
  # modinfo vhci_hcd usbip_core | grep filename  
    filename:       /lib/modules/4.14.209-160.339.amzn2.x86_64/kernel/drivers/usb/usbip/vhci-hcd.ko  
    filename:       /lib/modules/4.14.209-160.339.amzn2.x86_64/kernel/drivers/usb/usbip/usbip-core.ko  
  
But, I didn't find usbip userspace tools after enabled EPEL repository\[1], and scanned for package which may have this binary:  
  # yum provides */usbip | grep bin  
And proceeded with installation of it from a tarball I sourceforge\[2]:  
  
  # yum install autoconf libtool libsysfs-devel glib*  
  # wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/usbip/usbip/0.1.7/usbip-0.1.7.tar.gz   
  # tar -xzf usbip-0.1.7.tar.gz  
  # cd usbip-0.1.7/src  
  # ./autogen.sh  
  # ./configure  
  # make install  
  
By default it's installed in /usr/local/bin which can be added to PATH with profile:  
  # echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/profile.d/path.sh && source /etc/profile.d/path.sh  
  # usbip --help

For Ubuntu 20.04, I found that the drivers are available in "linux-image-extra-virtual" and I have it installed with 5.4.0-58-generic kernel:  
  
  # uname -r  
    5.4.0-1029-aws  
  # apt update  
  # apt install linux-image-extra-virtual  
  # find /usr/ -iname "vhci*"  
    /usr/lib/modules/5.4.0-58-generic/kernel/drivers/usb/usbip/vhci-hcd.ko  
    ..  
  # find /usr/ -iname "usbip*"  
    /usr/lib/modules/5.4.0-58-generic/kernel/drivers/usb/usbip  
    /usr/lib/modules/5.4.0-58-generic/kernel/drivers/usb/usbip/usbip-core.ko  
    /usr/lib/modules/5.4.0-58-generic/kernel/drivers/usb/usbip/usbip-vudc.ko  
    /usr/lib/modules/5.4.0-58-generic/kernel/drivers/usb/usbip/usbip-host.ko  
    ..  
  
Added drivers to load on boot:  
  # echo "vhci_hcd" >> /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf  
  # echo "usbip_core" >> /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf  
  
Then installed usbip:  
  # apt install linux-tools-5.4.0-58-generic  
  
Then modified grub to boot with 5.4.0-58-generic instead of 5.4.0-1029-aws according to $menuentry_id_option in my /boot/grub/grub.cfg  
  
# grep -A1000 submenu  /boot/grub/grub.cfg |grep menuentry  
  submenu 'Advanced options for Ubuntu' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-175c087c-0fe9-4d62-a38d-e5f8a66a5851' {  
  ..  
	menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 5.4.0-58-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-5.4.0-58-generic-advanced-175c087c-0fe9-4d62-a38d-e5f8a66a5851' {  
  ..  
vim /etc/default/grub  
  #GRUB_DEFAULT=0  
  GRUB_DEFAULT="gnulinux-advanced-175c087c-0fe9-4d62-a38d-e5f8a66a5851>gnulinux-5.4.0-58-generic-advanced-175c087c-0fe9-4d62-a38d-e5f8a66a5851"  
  
Then updated grub, rebooted ec2 instance, and verified usbip and loaded modules:  
  # update-grub && reboot  
  # uname -r  
    5.4.0-58-generic  
  # lsmod | grep vhci  
    vhci_hcd               53248  0  
    usbip_core             36864  1 vhci_hcd  
  # usbip --help  
  
Edited by: TValley on Dec 31, 2020 12:51 AM

How to install usbip vhci_hcd drivers on an AWS EC2 Ubuntu Kernel Version

So, I got an answer to this question from someone at AWS Support team. Hope this answer helps someone else in need.

uname -r

modinfo vhci_hcd usbip_core | grep filename

yum provides */usbip | grep bin

yum install autoconf libtool libsysfs-devel glib*

wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/usbip/usbip/0.1.7/usbip-0.1.7.tar.gz

tar -xzf usbip-0.1.7.tar.gz

cd usbip-0.1.7/src

./autogen.sh

./configure

make install

echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/profile.d/path.sh && source /etc/profile.d/path.sh

usbip --help

uname -r

apt update

apt install linux-image-extra-virtual

find /usr/ -iname "vhci*"

find /usr/ -iname "usbip*"

echo "vhci_hcd" >> /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf

echo "usbip_core" >> /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf

apt install linux-tools-5.4.0-58-generic

grep -A1000 submenu /boot/grub/grub.cfg |grep menuentry

update-grub && reboot

uname -r

lsmod | grep vhci

usbip --help

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