- Linux Io Model
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Agenda I Userspace vision: di erent types of devices I Implementation of basic character drivers I Kernel frameworks' for device drivers I General concept I Example of the framebu er and serial ports frameworks I The device model I General concept I Focus on an USB network driver I Platform drivers Free Electrons. Kernel, drivers and embedded Linux development, consulting, training.
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Linux Io Model
I want to learn linux kernel device driver programming. So can anyone please post good tutorials pages or links here. I am new to linux kernel environment. I have searched for it but I don't know how to start and which one to read for easy understanding basics. Thanks in advance.
RajKumar RampelliRajKumar Rampelli54822 gold badges77 silver badges1717 bronze badges
closed as too broad by animuson♦Oct 5 '14 at 15:14
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7 Answers
Depends on your current skills. If you're really new to Linux, perhaps you should start with user space system programming with Advanced Linux Programming. You'll get good knowledge of Unix system calls and other concepts such as signals, processes/threads and so on with this free resource. This is a must (understanding the user space API) if you're developing on the kernel side since the role of a kernel is providing services to users in a secure way.
Otherwise one often cited book is Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition (LDD3). Keep in mind that this edition was written at the time of Linux 2.6.10 and some things changed since then. This article shows the differences as 2.6 evolved (until 2.6.31, that is, so not very useful). I should mention martinezjavier/ldd3, which contains example drivers of LDD3 updated for more recent kernels (thanks to 42n4 for pointing that out).
Another interesting book that's not as often cited is Essential Linux Device Drivers. You won't find a free version of this one, but it still features an interesting approach. What I like about this one is it covers lots of different device types and is up-to-date as of 2.6.24, which is a bit better than LDD.
Finally, one great book about the kernel itself (not specifically for drivers) is Understanding the Linux Kernel, 3rd Edition. This covers in-depth kernel facilities and internal mechanisms. It's up-to-date as of 2.6.11.
As for online tutorials, I found this post on Pete's Blog is a really great example. Not only does it show how to create a character device (the most easy kernel driver type, i.e. the one you should start with), it uses modern Linux kernel features in an easy to understand fashion, including:
- use of udev
- use of a kernel data structure (FIFO)
- use of kernel synchronization (mutex)
- use of Sysfs with custom attributes
- module options for
insmod
Plus: it's aimed at Linux 3.0, which means it's more up-to-date compared to other resources.
You might also like this post about how to create Sysfs entries manually, although the Linux device model will take care of registering your device as a Sysfs entry if you don't need additional nodes or attributes.
Edit: I should add that the best way to learn real Linux device driver programming is to look at actual drivers. There are thousands of drivers in
drivers
. Start reading and understanding the concept of simple ones like drivers/leds
and you will see how rewarding this is.Linux Device Driver Model Number
eeppeepp
The site with very important links:http://elinux.org/Device_drivers
Great tutorial with real examples (ends with an usbpen formatted with our own file system - search for author further articles):
Source code of famous LDD3 book ported to newest kernels:https://github.com/martinezjavier/ldd3/
Videos:
Maybe other cources:
Some examples:
Books (without mentioned in this thread LDD3):
- http://www.coopj.com/ with an updated source code http://www.coopj.com/LPD/
KernelHacking:http://kernelnewbies.org/KernelHacking
Visual map of the linux kernel: http://www.makelinux.net/kernel_map/
Linux and kernel books for beginners:
42n442n4
You might be interested in the newly released Linux Driver Templates. As the name suggests, it provides templates and demonstrates frequently used Linux facilities to get started quickly.
gertvdijkgertvdijk18.2k22 gold badges2626 silver badges4444 bronze badges
I understand it is a delayed response !!
You can pick any book, those are really great books suggested above.
But you need to really work practically. Try to be involved into Kernel as much as possible.
Mostly you need to look into kernel source code itself.
And the most interesting document you can find in Documentation folder under Kernel tree.
kleopatra46.1k1616 gold badges7676 silver badges168168 bronze badges
SanSan45711 gold badge1010 silver badges3030 bronze badges
best book for learning device driver programming is
'LDD'
ImposterImposter'LDD'
2,21611 gold badge1717 silver badges3131 bronze badges
Professional Linux Kernel Architecture is a good read also.
sbhalsbhal
Linux Kobject
The best source is the linux man pages but they are somewhat critical to understand for a beginner, Directly programming device drivers is not a easy task. I recommend you to go through pointers and structures through following books
Basic C Books 1. Programming C - Byron gottfried 2. The C Programming Language - Dennis Ritchie
Intermediate Books 1. Pointers on C Kenneth Reek 2. Expert C Programming Deep Secrets - Linden
Coming to device Drivers I have uploaded the Kernel Source documentation in pdf format https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B7iRyndFhHldR3hjOHpOZTdKTjA&usp=sharing Youcan download from this link.
Device Drivers Basics (User mode Programming)
Linux Device Driver Model History
Linux Programming interface - Michael KerriskBeginning Linux Programming Wrox PublishersDevice Drivers (Kernel Deleopment) 1. Linux Kernel Development - Robert Love 2. Linux Kernel Internals - m beck
Device Drivers (Driver Programming) 1. Linux Device Drivers - Third Edition (Free Download is available for 2.6 Kernel) 2. Essential Linux Device Drivers - Venkateswaran
Linux Device Driver Tutorial
For Basic Driver Knowledge Follow this site http://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/devices/devices.html
My Experience is First of all we must gain a sound knowledge on C Programming, mainly Structures and Pointers before going through Driver Programming otherwise it will be bit cumbersome to understand driver programming.
Comming to Startup :-
Linux Device Driver 3rd Edition
- User space programmingBasics of gcc generating proprocessed, assembler and object files using gcc commands analysis of object files using different object tools, Basic programming in linux, threads(locks, synchronization techniques), signals, processes(fork, exec), timers(Posix). This will help you lot in understanding kernel concepts.
- Kernel Programming Understanding the kernel source tree, different branches and their importance, using ctags and cscope to browse kernel source code, this will help you in kernel source browsing.
- Driver Programming First of all Learn different driver classes, char, block etc., Next learn the device protocols, transmission and reception, the product manual is the best source for going through this. Then start writing the simple char driver for example RTC (a port mapped device), IOAPIC (A memory mapped device), then go to USB, PCI, Network, I2C, SPI etc., if you want the help you can find the skeleton code for all this in kernel source tree.
Linux Drivers Download
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