Building a Driver (Device Driver Tutorial)

Device Driver Tutorial

Building a Driver

This section tells you how to compile and link a driver for different architectures.

Make sure you have installed the Oracle Solaris OS at the Developer level or above. Follow the instructions in the Oracle Solaris 11 Express Automated Installer Guide to install the OS. See also the Getting Started With Oracle Solaris 11 Express for an introduction to the Oracle Solaris 11 Express operating system.

A 64-bit kernel cannot use a 32-bit driver. A 64-bit kernel can use only 64-bit drivers. All parts of any particular program must use the same data model. A device driver is not a complete program. The kernel is a complete program. A driver is a part of the kernel program. If you want your device to work with the Oracle Solaris OS in 32-bit mode and in 64-bit mode, then you must provide both a 32-bit driver and a 64-bit driver.

By default, compilation on the operating system yields a 32-bit result on every architecture. To obtain a 64-bit result, use the compilation options specified in this section for 64-bit architectures.

Use the prtconf(1M) command with the -x option to determine whether the firmware on this system is 64-bit ready.

Compiling with Oracle Solaris Studio

Use the -D_KERNEL option to indicate that this code defines a kernel module.

If you are compiling for a 64-bit SPARC architecture using Sun Studio 9, Sun Studio 10, or Sun Studio 11, use the -xarch=v9 option:
% cc -D_KERNEL -xarch=v9 -c mydriver.c % ld -r -o mydriver mydriver.o
If you are compiling for a 64-bit SPARC architecture using Sun Studio 12, use the -m64 option:
% cc -D_KERNEL -m64 -c mydriver.c % ld -r -o mydriver mydriver.o
If you are compiling for a 64-bit x86 architecture using Sun Studio 10 or Sun Studio 11, use both the -xarch=amd64 option and the -xmodel=kernel option:
% cc -D_KERNEL -xarch=amd64 -xmodel=kernel -c mydriver.c % ld -r -o mydriver mydriver.o
If you are compiling for a 64-bit x86 architecture using Sun Studio 12, use the -m64 option, the -xarch=sse2a option, and the -xmodel=kernel option:
% cc -D_KERNEL -m64 -xarch=sse2a -xmodel=kernel -c mydriver.c % ld -r -o mydriver mydriver.o
If you are compiling for a 32-bit architecture, use the following build commands:
% cc -D_KERNEL -c mydriver.c % ld -r -o mydriver mydriver.o

Note –

Sun Studio 9 does not support 64-bit x86 architectures. Use Sun Studio 10, Sun Studio 11, or Sun Studio 12 to compile and debug drivers for 64-bit x86 architectures.

For more information on compile and link options, see the Sun Studio Man Pages and the Sun Studio 12: C User’s Guide. See the Sun Studio Information Center in the Sun Studio 12 Collection for Sun Studio books about dbx, dmake, Performance Analyzer, and other software development topics. To read technical articles about Sun Studio, see Sun Studio Technical Articles. To learn more about Oracle Solaris Studio, go to http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solarisstudio/overview/index.html.

Compiling with the GNU C Compiler

To get the GNU C Compiler, first install the Oracle Solaris 11 Express OS. The developer tools are available in a repository as packages. See the Oracle Solaris 11 Express Image Packaging System Guide and the Getting Started With Oracle Solaris 11 Express

Use the -D_KERNEL option to indicate that this code defines a kernel module. These examples show options that are required for correct functionality of the result.

If you are compiling for a 64-bit SPARC architecture, use the following build commands:
% gcc -D_KERNEL -m64 -mcpu=v9 -mcmodel=medlow -fno-pic -mno-fpu -ffreestanding -nodefaultlibs -c mydriver.c % ld -r -o mydriver mydriver.o
You might also want to use the -mtune=ultrasparc option and the -O2 option.
If you are compiling for a 64-bit x86 architecture, use the following build commands:
% gcc -D_KERNEL -m64 -mcmodel=kernel -mno-red-zone -ffreestanding -nodefaultlibs -c mydriver.c % ld -r -o mydriver mydriver.o
You might also want to use the -mtune=opteron option and the -O2 option.

If you are compiling for a 32-bit architecture, use the following build commands:

% gcc -D_KERNEL -ffreestanding -nodefaultlibs -c mydriver.c
% ld -r -o mydriver mydriver.o

For more information on these and other options, see the gcc(1) man page. See also the GCC web site at http://gcc.gnu.org/.