- DDK : The first and most basic tool required for Device driver development is the DDK or Device Driver Kit as they call it , it is basically a collection of all the functions and header files which provides a framework for the device driver developement.The DDK can be found on the microsoft website and a ISO for the same can be downloaded at the following link. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/DevKits.mspx . The DDK can be downlaoded from the Microsoft connect website and the instruction is mentioned on the site above.
- HELP FILES : Help for DDK can be found in online MSDN . It can also be downloaded from microsoft connect website.
- DEBUG & COMPILATION ENVIRONMENT : One of the most common sites for Device driver developer is the BSOD or BSD ( the blue screen of death )
This is the most common site for a driver. Whenever there is a exception in the driver it crashes the entire operation system. It is therefore adviced not to do driver programming on your main machine. The best way to develop drivers is to use Virtual machines. Google Virtual machines by VMWare to find more about it .Basically a VM(Virtual machine) allows a full operation system to run inside a virtual environment, in this way even if there is a crash while developing a driver , it crashes just the VM and your main machine reamins safe.- Now for having a look at the debug messages for the VM we need a Kernel Debug Viewer , there are many popular Kernel debuger available for free download, I have used two of them WinDbg found here http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.Mspx and DebugView by SysInternals found here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647.aspx
- Another program that you would require is a driver loader which can be found on the OSRonline site .
Now that we are all set with the tools and the utilities required for driver development , how about starting with a hello world driver. There are many resources on the net available which explain in detail the Hello world driver so instead of re-inventing the wheel I am gonna provide some links for hello world drivers :
- http://www.sriramkrishnan.com/blog/2007/09/world-windows-driver-from-scratch.html - Blog contains all information for a hello world driver.
- http://www.catch22.net/tuts/kernel1.asp - another tutorial with a hello world sample built in , this site also has a utility like DriverLoader from OSROnline.
Now all this is OK if you have idea about what device drivers are , If you do not have any Idea about device driver programming like me , you would do well to get a book in hand and start reading a bit of background. Device driver are closley related to the hardware , so you will have to brush up on your fundas of how some of the basic hardware like Serial port , parallel port , keyboard works , you also need to be clear about some of the concepts about Operationg system. Device driver are completely developed in C/C++ so a brush up on those fundas wont be a waste of time.
Device driver require theoritical background , and reading it cab be pretty boring, but they are must I read a book by Walter Oney called Programming the Microsoft® Windows® Driver Model,its a good book but again lots of theory at the start which gets boring and you start to feel that you are going nowhere.(If you are trying to get this book in India best of Luck , I couldnt get it in my city and had to get it from a book store in Pune).
Some other important links for device drives are
- http://www.osronline.com/ - Good site , has answers to a lots of questions.
- SysInternals - Now owned by microsoft and now available on Microsoft Technet (without source code for many programs) http://technet.microsoft.com/hi-in/sysinternals/default(en-us).aspx
Happy DDriving.
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