JavaScript is required to for searching.
Skip Navigation Links
Exit Print View
Writing Device Drivers     Oracle Solaris 11.1 Information Library
search filter icon
search icon

Document Information

Preface

Part I Designing Device Drivers for the Oracle Solaris Platform

1.  Overview of Oracle Solaris Device Drivers

2.  Oracle Solaris Kernel and Device Tree

3.  Multithreading

4.  Properties

5.  Managing Events and Queueing Tasks

6.  Driver Autoconfiguration

7.  Device Access: Programmed I/O

8.  Interrupt Handlers

9.  Direct Memory Access (DMA)

10.  Mapping Device and Kernel Memory

11.  Device Context Management

12.  Power Management

13.  Hardening Oracle Solaris Drivers

14.  Layered Driver Interface (LDI)

Part II Designing Specific Kinds of Device Drivers

15.  Drivers for Character Devices

16.  Drivers for Block Devices

17.  SCSI Target Drivers

18.  SCSI Host Bus Adapter Drivers

19.  Drivers for Network Devices

20.  USB Drivers

21.  SR-IOV Drivers

Part III Building a Device Driver

22.  Compiling, Loading, Packaging, and Testing Drivers

Driver Development Summary

Driver Code Layout

Header Files

Source Files

Configuration Files

Preparing for Driver Installation

Compiling and Linking the Driver

Module Dependencies

Writing a Hardware Configuration File

Installing, Updating, and Removing Drivers

Copying the Driver to a Module Directory

Installing Drivers with add_drv

Updating Driver Information

Removing the Driver

Loading and Unloading Drivers

Driver Packaging

Criteria for Testing Drivers

Configuration Testing

Functionality Testing

Error Handling

Testing Loading and Unloading

Stress, Performance, and Interoperability Testing

DDI/DKI Compliance Testing

Installation and Packaging Testing

Testing Specific Types of Drivers

Testing Tape Drivers

Testing Disk Drivers

Asynchronous Communication Drivers

Testing Network Drivers

Testing SR-IOV Drivers

23.  Debugging, Testing, and Tuning Device Drivers

24.  Recommended Coding Practices

Part IV Appendixes

A.  Hardware Overview

B.  Summary of Oracle Solaris DDI/DKI Services

C.  Making a Device Driver 64-Bit Ready

D.  Console Frame Buffer Drivers

E.  pci.conf File

Index

Driver Development Summary

This chapter and the following two chapters, Chapter 23, Debugging, Testing, and Tuning Device Drivers and Chapter 24, Recommended Coding Practices, provide detailed information on developing a device driver.

Take the following steps to build a device driver:

  1. Write, compile, and link the new code.

    See Driver Code Layout for the conventions on naming files. Use a C compiler to compile the driver. Link the driver using ld(1). See Compiling and Linking the Driver and Module Dependencies.

  2. Create the necessary hardware configuration files.

    Create a hardware configuration file unique to the device called xx.conf where xx is the prefix for the device. This file is used to update the driver.conf(4) file. See Writing a Hardware Configuration File. For a pseudo device driver, create a pseudo(4) file.

  3. Copy the driver to the appropriate module directory.

    See Copying the Driver to a Module Directory.

  4. Install the device driver using add_drv(1M).

    See Installing Drivers with add_drv. Use the update_drv(1M) command to make any changes to the driver. See Updating Driver Information.

  5. Load the driver.

    The driver can be loaded automatically by accessing the device. See Loading and Unloading Drivers. Drivers can also be loaded by using the modload(1M) command. The modload command does not call any routines in the module and therefore is useful for testing. See Loading and Unloading Test Modules.

  6. Test the driver.

    Drivers should be rigorously tested in the following areas:

    For additional driver-specific testing, see Testing Specific Types of Drivers.

  7. Remove the driver if necessary.

    Use the rem_drv(1M) command to remove a device driver. See Removing the Driver.