Linux Device Driver Training - Development and Administration Classes

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Linux Device Driver Development Training

Course Description

This course introduces attendees to developing device drivers for Linux.

This course acquaints developers with the issues essential for Linux device driver development. The course progresses through a number of topics. Each topic is presented along with a supporting laboratory exercise before moving on to the next topic.

Overview

This two day course provides practice with the key steps in developing Linux device drivers. The course shows attendees how device drivers work with the Linux kernel, how to compile and load drivers, how to debug drivers, as well as other essential topics. We will discuss character, block and network drivers,

Attendees will develop a complete, simple, driver that demonstrates the process of creating a Linux device driver. The course covers the key issues in Linux device drivers.

Attendees will spend approximately 50 percent of the class time actually gaining hands-on experience with these topics.

Course Objectives:

• To provide an understanding of the essentials of Linux device drivers.
• To give you practical experience in developing Linux device drivers.
• To explain the characteriistics of Linux kernel important to Device Driver writers

Attendees will learn:

The steps necessary to add device drivers to a Linux system

How to determine what hardware is present on a Linux system

The purpose and functionality of device drivers

Compiling and linking device drivers

Basics of network device drivers.

Trade-offs between loadable modules and drivers compiled into the kernel.

Who Should Attend:

The course is designed for software engineers who are new to Linux and/or device drivers. Attendees should have experience with C, be able to perform basic UNIX commands, and have some experience with the basic GNU tools.

Duration

Two days

Course Materials

The workshop materials include a comprehensive student workbook. The workbook contains all of the slides used in the course as well as hands-on lab exercises. Students are able to bring home the lab and example code used in the class.

Course Workshop and Set-up:

When this class is presented virtually via something like WebEx, attendees are responsible for providing their own native Linux computer. You need to have root access on the computer. Some exercises may involve using a virtual machine in addition and the host computer should be configured to allow running virtual machines.

The following modules will be covered during the class:



How Loadable Modules Work	Benefits of loadable modules Correct use of insmod, modprobe, rmmod, and lsmod Passing parameters to a loadable module The GPL and your driver code
Compiling, Loading And Exporting	Identifying important header files Writing a simple module Compiling modules Loading/unloading modules Exporting symbols from a loadable module Creating stacked loadable modules
Character Devices	Classes of device 0e files Major and minor numbers Creating device files with mknod Registering character device file Listing character device driver methods Dynamic major/minor numbers
Tracing and Debugging	printk for debugging Information in /proc and /sys strace to track system calls crash, gdb
Data: User To/From Kernel	Functions for accessing user space Shared Memory Issues with accessing user space from kernel space
IOCTL, mmap() and fasync()	What is ioctl Using ioctl commands Implementing IOCTL in drivers Implementing mmap() in a driver Implementing fasync() in a driver
Blocking and Wait Queues	Schedule() Wait Queues Poll()
Memory management	Memory allocation with kmalloc and kfree Page-oriented memory allocation
Network Drivers	The net_device structure Naming scheme Network driver methods
Block Device Drivers	Block device drivers Header files Registering block drivers

If you have any questions about the difficulty level of the class or any other aspect of the class, please contact us at: classes (at) linuxcertified.com

Optional: All attendees will get a Linux laptop to be used during the class. You have the option of purchasing this laptop with an additional course fee.

Enrollment Form

On-site: If you would like to arrange an on-site Linux Device Driver class, please contact us: classes (at) linuxcertified.com.

Public class schedule: Please see dates on our calendar page.