Linux Device Drivers, Second Edition

Overview of the Book

From here on, we enter the world of kernel programming. Chapter 2 introduces modularization, explaining the secrets of the art and showing the code for running modules. Chapter 3 talks about char drivers and shows the complete code for a memory-based device driver that can be read and written for fun. Using memory as the hardware base for the device allows anyone to run the sample code without the need to acquire special hardware.

Debugging techniques are vital tools for the programmer and are introduced in Chapter 4. Then, with our new debugging skills, we move to advanced features of char drivers, such as blocking operations, the use of select, and the important ioctl call; these topics are the subject of Chapter 5.

Before dealing with hardware management, we dissect a few more of the kernel’s software interfaces: Chapter 6 shows how time is managed in the kernel, and Chapter 7 explains memory allocation.

Next we focus on hardware. Chapter 8 describes the management of I/O ports and memory buffers that live on the device; after that comes interrupt handling, in Chapter 9. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to run the sample code for these chapters, because some hardware support is actually needed to test the software interface to interrupts. We’ve tried our best to keep required hardware support to a minimum, but you still need to put your hands on the soldering iron to build your hardware “device.” The device is a single jumper wire that plugs into ...