How does avrdude with AVR-ISP-MKII respond when no target board is connected?

I'm trying to troubleshoot my set-up, and would like to know if the problem lies between the laptop and programmer or between the programmer and target board.

For me, this avrdude command gives the same result regardless of whether the target board is connected or not. It doesn't matter if the file exists or not.

# avrdude -c avrispmkII -p m328 -U flash:w:flashled.hex avrdude: usbdev_open(): Found AVRISP mkII, serno: 000200012345 avrdude: Sent: . [01] avrdude: usbdev_recv_frame(): usb_bulk_read(): Input/output error avrdude: stk500v2_recv_mk2: error in USB receive avrdude: Sent: . [01] avrdude: usbdev_recv_frame(): usb_bulk_read(): Input/output error avrdude: stk500v2_recv_mk2: error in USB receive avrdude: Sent: . [01] avrdude: usbdev_recv_frame(): usb_bulk_read(): Input/output error avrdude: stk500v2_recv_mk2: error in USB receive 

How does avrdude with AVR-ISP-MK2 respond when no target board is connected?

I'm trying to troubleshoot my set-up, and would like to know if the problem lies between the laptop and programmer or between the programmer and target board.

For me, this avrdude command gives the same result regardless of whether the target board is connected or not. It doesn't matter if the file exists or not.

# avrdude -c avrispmkII -p m328 -U flash:w:flashled.hex avrdude: usbdev_open(): Found AVRISP mkII, serno: 000200012345 avrdude: Sent: . [01] avrdude: usbdev_recv_frame(): usb_bulk_read(): Input/output error avrdude: stk500v2_recv_mk2: error in USB receive avrdude: Sent: . [01] avrdude: usbdev_recv_frame(): usb_bulk_read(): Input/output error avrdude: stk500v2_recv_mk2: error in USB receive avrdude: Sent: . [01] avrdude: usbdev_recv_frame(): usb_bulk_read(): Input/output error avrdude: stk500v2_recv_mk2: error in USB receive