Linux Device Driver Beginner-Where do i start?
 

I am a starter -both to Linux and Device Driver Development. I need suggestion how i can start out with linux so that finally i m able to write device drivers . Like which flavor of linux is best for a PC and what books and sites are best for info and what is the hardware easiest to program ? What should i do? And what must be my course of action to get started off and become an active Linux user?? Sometimes the simplest of codes(especially modules) given in some books dont compile right on my system. So what do i have to do?
Pls help . How do i get the info i require?

If you are new to linux you dont want to start writing drivers for a long while. Do you know any languages right now? What exactly are you trying to accomplish? If you are new to linux i think you need to start off with a simple distro like ubuntu that is very beginner friendly.

The Linux Device Drivers book is available for free (legally) from O'Reilly's site. It is the definitive guide, next to the kernel source itself. Drivers are part of the kernel (either built in or dynamically loaded) so you'll want to know about Linux kernel module programming (there's a guide at TLDP.org).

If you're new to Linux and to driver development it will take you some time to be able to learn how to write a driver. If you're new to programming as a whole I'd suggest you take some time to become familiar with it and how OSes work in general before tackling something as complicated as driver development.