Writing Linux Device Drivers is designed to show experienced programmers how to develop device drivers for Linux systems, and give them a basic understanding and familiarity with the Linux kernel. Upon mastering this material, you will be familiar with the different kinds of device drivers used under Linux, and know the appropriate API's through which devices (both hard and soft) interface with the kernel. The purpose is to get you into coding as quickly as possible. Thus we'll tell you early on how to dynamically allocate memory in the simplest way, so you can actually write code, and then later cover the subject more thoroughly. Each section has exercises, most of which involve writing code, designed to help you gain familiarity with programming for the Linux kernel. Solutions are provided. We are not aiming for an expert audience, but instead for a competent and motivated one.
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About the Author
Jerry Cooperstein has been working with computers since 1969. He has a PhD in theoretical nuclear astrophysics, and has been using Linux since 1994. He has done many Linux engineering projects both at the application and kernel level and since 1998 has been developing and teaching courses on Linux Device Drivers, Kernel Internals and Systems Programming.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Touches on everything, master's nothing,
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This review is from: Writing Linux Device Drivers: a guide with exercises (Volume 3) (Paperback)
This book was required for one of my Computer Science classes. It does a good job at introducing all the kernel parts, but doesn't go into great detail about any one. It's good for people that are just getting into kernel programming, but I got though the class by using Google and other references that are already out there.
19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding Reference!,
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This review is from: Writing Linux Device Drivers: a guide with exercises (Volume 3) (Paperback)
Dr. Cooperstein,
I just wanted to thank you for your excellent book (and lab solutions manual/code) "Writing Linux Device Drivers." I'm in the process of writing multiple kernel modules as part of my thesis, and I've been having a pretty rough time trying to use existing examples or other research given the significant changes in kernel code. Most of the other books I've found either skirt around the issues that seem clearly presented in your book...or they explain them only as clearly as the source code itself. Other books that do explain things well often present code that will not work with current linux kernels, and it is very tough for someone trying to learn the concepts to adapt obsolete source code...if I knew how to update the code, I wouldn't need to book in the first place. I think I can say this confidently, as I own just about every book about the linux kernel or linux kernel drivers from O'Reilly, Wrox, Novell, Prentice Hall, Addison Wesley, Osborne, and probably a couple I can't think of right now. Your book is not only well written (and timely for me), but both its content and sample code are directly usable in current linux kernels. I greatly appreciate the simple fact that all the driver code compiles cleanly; that is truly a unique feature at this time...and one that means a lot to someone trying to figure it out. If the online source code continues to be kept to-date with current kernels, your books will be an enduring asset! Thank you for publishing your books.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Reads like a course overview,
By Jeff Barth (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Writing Linux Device Drivers: a guide with exercises (Volume 3) (Paperback)
This book reads like a course outline used to teach a course. There are 35 chapters, most about 5 - 10 pages each. It begins by discussing driver issues, and devotes one long chapter (18 pages!) to character drivers. Then the book launches into virtually every kernel programming issue such as interrupts, timers, scheduling, ioctls, etc. Yes, these are useful topics for a device driver developer, but I have already seen most of these topics. The author seems to completely lose sight of the goal of this book: Writing Linux Device Drivers. Finally, in Chapter 24 the author gets back to device drivers and does provide 4 chapters on Network Drivers, and one on USB drivers. Block drivers aren't discussed until the very last chapter (9 pages including exercises).
This book can be useful as an outline, a guide to direct your online research (read, Google). But I very much doubt that anyone could write a meaningful device driver using just this book. If you have access to this book, use it as a study guide. But I wouldn't recommend buying it.
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