Linux Device Drivers.ppt

Linux Device Drivers Inroduction What’s a ‘device-driver’? A special kind of computer program Intended to control a peripheral device Needs to execute ‘privileged’ instructions Must be integrated into the OS kernel Interfaces both to kernel and to hardware Program-format specific to a particular OS Linux device-drivers A package mainly of ‘service functions’ The package is conceptually an ‘object’ But in C this means it’s a ‘struct’ Specifically: struct file_operations { …; }; Definition is found in a kernel-header: ‘/usr/src/linux/include/linux/fs.h’ Types of Device-Drivers Character drivers: - the device processes individual bytes (e.g., keyboard, printer, modem) Block drivers: - the device processes groups of bytes (e.g., hard disks, CD-ROM drives) Linux has other driver-types Network drivers Mouse drivers SCSI drivers USB drivers Video drivers ‘Hot-swap’ drivers … and others Linux treats devices as files Programmers accustomed to the file API open(), seek(), read(), write(), close(), ... Requires creating a filename in a directory (special ‘/dev’ directory is for devices) Driver Identification Character/Block drivers: Use ‘major-number’ to identify the driver Use ‘minor-numbers’ to distinguish among several devices the same driver controls Kernel also needs a driver-name Users need a device-node as ‘interface’ Developing a device-driver Clarify your requirements Devise a design to achieve them Test your design-concept (‘prototype’) ‘Debug’ your prototype (as needed) Build your final driver in iteratively Document your work for future use ‘Open Source’ Hardware Some equipment manufactures regard their designs as ‘intellectual property’ They don’t want to ‘give away’ their info They believe ‘secrecy’ is an advantage They fear others might copy their designs BUT: This hinders systems programmers! Non-Disclosure Agreements Sometimes manufacturers will let ‘trusted’ individuals, or commercial ‘partners’, look at th