Linux Device Drivers (Nutshell Handbook)
Linux Device Drivers (Nutshell Handbook) by Alessandro Rubini
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Number of Pages:
- 439
- ISBN:
- 1565922921
- Product Group:
- book
- Publisher:
- O'Reilly Media
- Publication Date:
- Feb. 1, 1998
- BooksForGeeks.com ID:
- 1733
Updated to cover version 2.4.x of the Linux kernel, the second edition of Linux Device Drivers remains the best general-purpose, paper-bound guide for programmers wishing to make hardware devices work under the world's most popular open-source operating system. The authors take care to show how to write drivers that are portable--that is, that compile and run under all popular Linux platforms. That, along with the fact that they're careful to explain and illustrate concepts, makes this book very well-suited to any programmer familiar with C but not with the hardware-software interface. It's worth noting that the emphasis in the title is on "device drivers" as much as "Linux". This book will make sense to you if you've never written a driver for any platform before. It helps if you have some Linux or UNIX background, but even that is secondary as a prerequisite to C skill.
For a programming text--and one concerned with low-level instructions and data structures, at that--this book is remarkably rich in prose. You'll typically want to read this book straight through, more or less skipping the code samples, before sketching out your plan for the driver you need to write. Then, go back and pay closer attention to the sections on specific details you need to implement, such as custom task queues. For coding-time details about specific system calls and programming techniques, count on the index to point you to the right passages. --David Wall
Topics covered: Techniques for writing hardware device drivers that run under Linux kernels 2.0.x through 2.2.x. Sections show how to manage memory, time, interrupts, ports and other details of the hardware-software interface.
Reviews for Linux Device Drivers (Nutshell Handbook)
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Very good books for begin develop linux device drivers
Rated out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2009
This book is very useful for people thath wants learn about linux device drivers. The approach followed by the authors is practical oriented and involve the reader.
The descriptions of kernel data structure and subsystem (such as pci and usb) is very clear. -
Lack of real examples
Rated out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2008
Hi,
it is thorough in details about drivers, but lacks of examples. There is not any example in the book for a complete driver. -
Saved my bacon more than once...
Rated out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2007
This book is an excellent guide to device driver writing under Linux. Stuck with an unsupported printer? Then there's no reason to delay buying this book and rolling your own driver... -
Still an essential text
Rated out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2006
This remains the best all-round introduction to kernel programming where most of us start - writing device drivers.The third edition has been update to include information on writing VFS/file system drivers: an important update.
The text does remain rather too ia32 centric though.
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The book listed at the top is not the 2nd edition.
Rated out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2001
Like many people I have been waiting for the second addition to arrive and if you look on O'Reillys web site, you will see it is out now and that the first edition ( which is the one listed here ) is out of print.The 'Book Description' is about the 2nd edition, but the book, contents and price listed at the head of the page are for the first edition.
... Make sure you order the second edition...