The USB Support menu is divided into sections, including USB Support and Attached Devices. These sections include settings to enable or disable USB port support, configure USB-related printers and configure settings for USB-attached storage. There are also settings to support 3G/4G/5G USB modems.

Core USB Support: enables the USB driver/services for USB-equipped hardware.

When enabled, specific options appear for configuration, depending on your hardware.

• USB 3.0 Support * - enables USB 3.x (xHCI) operation
  on USB 3.0 (or higher) ports.
• USB 2.0 Support * - enables USB 2.0 (EHCI) operation.
• USB 1.1 Support - an option enables support for that mode of USB 1.1.
  • (OHCI) - enables OHCI support on USB 1.x / higher USB ports.
  • (UHCI) - enables UHCI support on USB 2.x / higher USB ports.

USB Printer Support: loads the driver for USB printing support. (Default: ).

• Bidirectional copying: enables bidirectional communications on the USB
  printer connection.
  
  Modern USB printers can communicate in two directions:
  The printer receives a print job/metadata from the client and
  the printer transmits status messages back to the driver about job status, ink or toner levels.
  
  
  Disabling this may help some FreshTomato-connected printers work better.
  (Default: Enabled).

USB Storage Support: enables driver/service support for USB storage. (Default: ).

• File Systems Support: checking an option loads drivers/support for that filesystem:
  
  
  • Ext2 / Ext3 - loads support for accessing media with Ext2 and Ext3 filesystems.
    
    
    Such partitions are usually created in Linux/Unix/BSD and similar systems. (Default: ).
    
    
  • NTFS - enabling this loads support for media formatted with Microsoft's NTFS filesystem.
    Mostly, this provides compatibility with media formatted in Windows (since NT). (Default: ).
    
    
  • FAT - enables support for the FAT filesystem, mostly for compatibility with flash drives.
    FAT is also used on SD, CompactFlash, MMC and other flash memory cards.
    FAT doesn't support symbolic links, so limits your ability to use programs like Entware
    or TTB. It shouldn't be your first choice. (Default: ).
    
    
  • Automount - makes FreshTomato automatically mount partitions detected when
    a USB drive is inserted or during boot to mount points in subdirectories of “/mnt”.
    (Default: Enabled).
    
    
  • Run after mounting - here, enter a script/series of commands
    to run when USB storage is mounted.
    
    
  • Run before unmounting - here, enter a script/series of commands
    to run before USB storage is unmounted.
    
    

Hotplug script: here, enter shell commands to execute when a USB device is attached/removed.

HDD Spindown: mmakes FreshTomato spin down idle mechanical drives.

This is not needed on solid state drives, like SSDs or flash drives, as they have no motors.

(Default: Enabled).

3G/4G/(5G) Modem Support: enables support for 3G/4G/(5G) USB modem dongles.

This lets you use a cellular carrier as an Internet provider. For details on 3G/4G modem settings, see the WAN Settings section on the Network page. Supported USB modems are listed on the 3G/4G/5G compatibility page.

The Attached Devices section contains a table of devices FreshTomato detects are attached to its USB ports.

The table has columns describing the device Type and the Host controller on which the device was detected. There is also a column containing a plain English Description of the media found and its status of mounted/unmounted.

If a drive isn't mounted, clicking [Mount] beside it mounts the drive to a mount point.

If a drive is mounted, [Unmount] unmounts the drive, so it's ready to remove/disconnect.

Some USB storage settings require the unloading/reloading of USB storage drivers. Changing those settings can affect the contents of your system log (syslog) file. For example, enabling or disabling filesystems, or unmounting the drive where the system log is stored may cause storage errors and possibly loss of log content.

Before changing any USB filesystem settings, you should first reconfigure syslog to be stored (temporarily) in RAM. Only then should you adjust filesystem settings or unmount the drive. Then you can configure syslog to again store log files on USB storage, where it shouldn't be interrupted.

USB filesystem corruption is a very common cause of system instability. You could experience a VPN connectivity issue, WiFi instability or any other seemingly “random” problem directly or indirectly caused by USB filesystem issues. When troubleshooting, you are advised to add USB filesystem checks to your troubleshooting checklist.