Writing Linux device drivers

[praveen.zenith]

Hi I m learning to write Graphics and Audio drivers in Linux.Can anyone please help me find out a good tutorial to write drivers?
I know this thing is not enough because there are different versions of linux and diff devices have different chipsets.But i want a general idea to build a generic driver.I have searched a\internet a lot but not able to find a good one.If someone has it please help me.

[[WebCarnage]]

• Try finding existing drivers and viewing their sources to get a general idea of how these things work.
• Read: www.xml.com/ldd/chapter/book/
• Then get into specifics (ie, what distro? what kernel? what genere - audio [OSS? ALSA?], graphics [what video card?]), etc. etc.

[Egaladeist]

Hi praveen.zenith,

Took a look around but all I could come up with is this...

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/101
Dave Phillips

I'm sure the resident Linux expert will come around shortly to lend a hand.

Hey! Anybody know the magic decoder ring number for gore?

Eg

[praveen.zenith]

thanx for the links
but these are the links that i had known n downloaded the stuff already...
if somewhere else n better material is there please tell me...
bye

[praveen.zenith]

no reply till now
wats happening out there
plzzzzzz i want help...i m done with reading writing linux device drivers by alssandro rubiniu et.al. from oreilly....
now i m thinking of making some kind of driver that does not depend on the type of hardware concerned...i mean a universal driver....
can nyone plzz guide me on this topic or provide some more reference material on linux device drivers....the more im reading this the more interesting i find it....
bye

[sec_ware]

Hi

I apologise for my ignorance, but what exactly do you already know,
where is your starting point and what do you really want to develop?
Please be more specific, because even when you write

making some kind of driver that does not depend on the type of hardware concerned...i mean a universal driver....

I do not understand what that means. In which context is a graphic card A different
from graphic card B, and with respect to what are they equal? They need to account
for some standard, if you want to do something generic.


I suggest you to start with the analysis of your goal, then design your
whatever you want, and as a last step, do the implementation. In this
particular case, I cannot help you with the third step without knowing
the first two.

However, a few general remarks, because I am by far no multimedia
device driver expert. If you want to write a generic driver, where do you
end up? Reinvent everything? Why not use a standard like OpenGL[1],
OpenAL[2], or a level higher, SDL[3]? For example, I mention OpenGL, because
I regard a device driver as an extension of this standard. I cannot be more
explicit, but a lot of developer-relevant issues are discussed in the linux
developer center[4].

Cheers

[1] http://www.opengl.org/
[2] http://www.openal.org/
[3] http://www.libsdl.org/index.php
[4] http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/