Where should I start if want to learn writing drivers under linux??

happy_maoron · 10-23-2005, 04:01 AM

I want some sample code about simple drivers under linux. Not the "Hello world" or "Scull" sample code, it doesn't tell me how to conmunicate with typical peripheral devices. I think a driver visits its device by writing or reading a number of bytes via the physical adddress, ant it's pretty easy by using assembler language. I don't know how to deal with this under linux by using the kernel functions.

And I know I should have some knoledge about linux kernel and finish reading the book "Linux Device Drivers". But it is a thick book and I want to have a quick start to understanding some basic features during writing a linux driver. Where can I find these kind of information?

Thanks for your help!

/bin/bash · 10-23-2005, 06:35 AM

Most drivers are just loadable kernel modules, so you should start with Linux Loadable Kernel Module HOWTO

jtshaw · 10-23-2005, 10:16 PM

Linux Device Drivers Vol 2 (2.4 kernel)
Linux Device Drivers Vol 3 (2.6 kernel)

The above links are free books that cover pretty much everything about how to make device drivers and kernel modules.

jlliagre · 10-24-2005, 01:24 AM

Quote:

I think a driver visits its device by writing or reading a number of bytes via the physical adddress, and it's pretty easy by using assembler language.

This statement is quite optimistic ...

dhirsolo · 10-24-2005, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Linux Device Drivers Vol 2 (2.4 kernel)
Linux Device Drivers Vol 3 (2.6 kernel)

Hi

Thanks for the valuable links.

Regards

sundialsvcs · 10-24-2005, 03:39 PM

The best possible resource, however, is the source-code itself. Look through the existing drivers to find one that is remotely similar to the one that you want.