"unable to initialize libusb: -99" when installed to an alpine linux docker image

[MechanicalMink]

To recreate, do the following:

Dockerfile:

FROM python:3.11-alpine
WORKDIR /app
RUN apk update
RUN pip install --upgrade pip
RUN apk add usbutils
RUN apk add libusb-dev
RUN apk add pciutils

compose.yml

version: "3.8"
services:
  web:
    container_name: alpine-linux-test
    devices: #comment out if you don't have a USB device to test with
      - /dev/usb/lp0:/dev/usb/lp0 #comment out if you don't have a USB device to test with
    command: sleep infinity
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    volumes:
      - ./:/app
    ports:
      - "8013:8013"
    restart: unless-stopped

build with:
docker compose up -d --force-recreate --build

test by opening a shell to the container and trying to run "lsusb"

docker exec -it alpine-linux-test sh
lsusb

The error will be triggered.

Confirm that a USB controller is detected with "lspci", and you should see that there is-- (If not, try running on a Pi 4. That's what I'm doing. Not sure if the USB controller is a virtual device or not, as I'm just getting into docker)

[mcuee]

This is probably not a libusb issue but a general Docker issue. You may want to ask in the docker community.

[MechanicalMink]

Would the fact that it works just fine on debian-based docker images help or harm your theory?

[mcuee]

Would the fact that it works just fine on debian-based docker images help or harm your theory?

No. Android is a different beast.
Edit: sorry -- this has nothing to do with Android but rather Alpine Linux.

Since it works for Debian based docker image, I tend to think it may well be specific to your Alpine docker image.
Maybe you want to ask in Alpine Linux community.

Did you try to build libusb without udev support?

[mcuee]

Not so sure if the discussion here is related or not.

• Linux non hotplug for containers #559

[tormodvolden]

Please run lsusb as LIBUSB_DEBUG=4 lsusb and see if you can identify the interesting parts, or save the output to a file and attach it here.