There are 2 usb.ids files and they are different

[Uqbar]

Binary package hint: usbutils

Once you install usbutils you end up with two different usb.ids files:
/usr/share/misc/usb.ids
/var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids
They are different from each other as seen here:
# find / -name usb.ids -exec ls -l {} \;
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 420663 2011-05-10 09:41 /var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 413960 2010-10-15 13:37 /usr/share/hwdata/usb.ids
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 2011-05-07 09:12 /usr/share/misc/usb.ids -> /var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids

Moreover, accordingly to http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?searchon=contents&keywords=usb.ids&mode=exactfilename&suite=natty&arch=any there can be three more copies of the same file.

I would suggest either to:
1. expunge that file from all packages
2. create a package with that file alone
3. make all those packages require the new one

or
1. make all packages require the usbutils
2. replace the usb.ids files in all other packages with symlinks.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: usbutils 0.87-5 [modified: var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic-pae 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri May 13 12:09:15 2011
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110427)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=it_IT:en
 LC_COLLATE=C
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: usbutils
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Michael Mauch (michael-mauch)]

That seems to be fixed in Precise:

% locate usb.ids | grep -v /home | xargs ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 2012-04-12 16:34 /usr/share/hwdata/usb.ids -> ../misc/usb.ids
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 2011-12-26 19:15 /usr/share/misc/usb.ids -> /var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 461454 2011-12-26 19:15 /var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids