Recommend hardware for driver tutorial?
I would like to learn more about writing Linux device drivers. I've read some
of the kernel source, and read a couple books on the kernel, but I don't think
I'll ever get very far unless I write an actual device driver. Just reading
doesn't make it stick, I have to spend time debugging real code.
Can you recommend to me some inexpensive devices I can plug into my PC or Mac
that I can use for tutorial purposes? What I would need is something that's not
too fancy, and for which the hardware documentation is readily available,
hopefully as a download from the vendor's website, or that someone could send me.
Note that there are drivers in the kernel for which the vendors were only
willing to provide specs on the condition the developers didn't pass them on, so
these people couldn't send them to me. I'd need something that is readily
available.
It would probably be best if there were already a driver for the thing in the
kernel that I could look at if I got stuck, but my plan is to write the drivers
independently of the kernel and only compare my code with the kernel's when I
think I have it working well.
I'm particularly interested in ethernet and scsi, but to start with any
inexpensive device would do. I have a BusLogic SCSI host bus adapter that's not
being used much anymore (just for a scanner) so if there were specs for that
available that would be great.
In the end I'd like to practice writing a variety of drivers (character, block,
and network) and then get ahold of something for which no driver is yet
available and contribute a real driver to the kernel.
Thanks,
Mike
--
Michael D. Crawford
GoingWare Inc. - Expert Software Development and Consulting
http://www.goingware.com/
crawford@goingware.com
Tilting at Windmills for a Better Tomorrow.
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