Hi folks !!!

I want to start linux device driver programming and that too with my sound card which did not get initialized when I installed RHEL 5 on my dell inspiron laptop.

I have started reading O'Really book on linux device driver. Any other suggestions with which I can play around to understand device driver programming.

Thanks

If you mean this one:
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596005900/
it is the standard.

Are you sure that you want to learn how to write device drivers, rather than just figure out how to get your sound card to work? Also, is there some reason you have chosen to use RHEL rather than one of the more common non-commercial distros that we normally see on laptops, such as Ubuntu, or Debian, or Suse, or whatever?

The first version of RHEL 5 was released 2007; it's likely that a newer kernel would know about your sound device.

Some information about sound drivers is available at http://www.alsa-project.org/~tiwai/w...n-alsa-driver/.

Your sound hardware is likely to be AC'97 or HDA; these specifications are available on Intel's web site.

Thanks all for your replies.

@pixellany -
I have started that book. I need a start with a simple module that I can insert first before moving completely into some kind of device drivers like my sound driver.

@Quakeboy02 -
Yes, I want to learn device driver programming. I thought I would have sme hands-on experience along with fixing driver problem. There are not any specific reasons for using RHEL. I started RHEL training in my college and I was comfortable with it. I need to try Ubuntu for sure but I will keep RHEL with me.

@cladisch -
I would be glad to switch to some new kernel but I have not done any compiling / re-compiling. Would you pls guide me on that.

Everybody -
I am ready to fix my sound card problem by all ideas which you guys shared. Also I want to learn device driver thing. Like I wrote to Quakeboy I thought I will learn device drivers along with configuring my sound card.

Thank you !!!