Hello,

I have a great desire to learn how to write device-drivers and other system software for Linux, or at least understand the underlying OS concepts and details involved. There are some great-looking books too for this area such as the ones from O'reilly.

But unfortunately, their newer editions reflecting the current 3.x kernels are just not available, nor do I know if they are in a publishing pipeline.

What do I do in such a case?

Though I could start reading the last editions of whatever is currently available, my mind would always be telling me that "this stuff is not current, and a part or whole of it must have been replaced or upgraded with better stuff... which not only I won't be learning about through this resource, I won't even know that it even exists!"

I find reading code directly VERY HARD, especially when the underlying concept is not (well-)documented.

What do I do? Would appreciate a helpful suggestion or two.

/HS

Hi simonsharry,

Are you saying that, you prefer to use a book, as in physically printed on paper, rather than make use of the online documentation?

If you don't mind reading the information on line, a search with keywords such linux kernel documentation, can provide various materials which should help you understand.

In some cases, the information may be available for download.

HTH.

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Go for books about 2.6.X kernels. The only difference between 2.6.X kernels and 3.X kernels is the different system of version numbers. It is not like the big changes from 2.4 to 2.6, switching to a new system of version numbers was an arbitrary decision without technical reasons.

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Thanks for clearing that up.

Hi. I in fact prefer online docs only. I was not sure if even online documentation would be thorough AND current at the same time; it's always easy to find one that is one but not the other. For example, usually books published (whether paper or electronic) tend to be thorough but not current; OTOH, the documentation that comes along with the API/software tends to be very current but also very sketchy.

If you have any specific sites in mind, please do share. I used to go to tldp.org many years ago, but the content there seems to be very ancient.

So, it is admittedly a little dated (2000), and printed on paper, but this might be a good overview for you. Geared specifically toward writing device drivers (which you mention) from a linux perspective. I just read it, it really cleared some things up so that I could look at newer code/docs and understand it better. It doesn't have a lot of coverage of linux file system structure or standard ways of doing things though. Your library can probably get it for 50¢ or something like that.

http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Assembly.../dp/0130879401

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Must read when developing Linux drivers: Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition

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