Essential Linux Device Drivers
Posted on 17 March 2010 by Abidoon
- ISBN13: 9780132396554
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
“Probably the most wide ranging and complete Linux device driver book I’ve read.” –Alan Cox, Linux Guru and Key Kernel Developer “Very comprehensive and detailed, covering almost every single Linux device driver type.” –Theodore Ts’o, First Linux Kernel Developer in North America and Chief Platform Strategist of the Linux Foundation The Most Practical Guide to Writing Linux Device Drivers Linux now offers an exceptionally rob… More >>
Like other reviews have stated, this first half of this book is a concise, useful introduction to certain Linux kernel concepts. But the title of the book leads the reader to expect that they could produce a Linux device driver using this book. That turns out not to be the case – no one could produce a driver with this book without the benefit of other reference material. In short, while the O’Reilly “Linux Device Drivers” text has it’s shortcomings and is starting to become dated, it is still the only text with which the reader can use as a primary reference to create their own driver. It discusses implementation in detail, which this book does not.
This brings me to the second half of “Essential Linux Device Drivers”, where specific device types are discussed. So little time is spent on each type that none are covered in enough detail to actually go off and start a driver of that type. You could be thinking that this book never claimed to enable you to write a PCI driver, for example, and that would be true. It just feels like a reduced scope with increased depth on the remainder would have made a much more useful book, rather than a bathroom reader.
Rating: 3 / 5
I’ve been frustrated by many other Linux kernel and device driver books. The authors often make assumptions about the readers knowledge and gloss over areas that can be quite confusing.
To some extent, that’s unavoidable: the Linux kernel is monstrous and very complex, and the hardware that drivers control can also be dark and mysterious territory.
I really appreciated this books approach. It’s not that everything is explained in complete detail; that would be impossible. However, the author obviously tries very hard to give an overview, an orientation that will hopefully set your mind in the right direction, before diving into details. Throughout the book he adds “go look at this” suggestions that can help you understand whatever he’s dealing with at this point.
I think Chapter 2, which is a high level fly-by of the kernel in general, is an absolute masterpiece. That starts by pulling typical kernel boot messages and explaining what they mean and what’s going on in code to produce them. It then goes on to discuss kernel locks, briefly looks at procfs and memory allocation, and closes (as each chapter does) with pointers to where to look in the source for the subjects discussed.
Chapters 3 and 4 flesh out basic concepts more, and then after that the book goes into details, picking both real world and fanciful examples of hardware and giving sample device drivers. Simple devices are presented first, while later chapters get into more complicated hardware, but in each case the same general format is followed: overview of the how and why, sample driver(s), how to most easily debug, and pointers to real kernel sources.
Very well done. I have no complaints – oh, a few minor typos, maybe, but nothing serious.
Rating: 5 / 5
Without a doubt, this is the best driver book I’ve ever purchased. In the first few chapters the author walks you through boot, interrupts, builds, installs etc so that you can make the most of his outstanding knowledge of drivers and driver design which fills 3/4 of the book. Even if you don’t want to design or build your own driver, the first few chapters alone are worth the cost of the book and the knowledge he imparts about drivers is priceless. If you are a Linux Kernel analyst, you can do no better than purchase this. And as to his writing style.. I’ve read plenty of dry, boring Linux technical books but this one even has a most outstanding writing style. It was enjoyable to read. I cannot praise this book enough. If you’re a newbie Linux Kernel Techie or someone who thinks they already know everything… you cannot go wrong. Buy it, read it and you will learn more about drivers than from any other book, and you’ll learn a whole lot more besides.
Rating: 5 / 5
If you really want to understand how linux device drivers works, do not buy this book. If you just want to take a look what kind of device drivers are there and how it roughly looks like, you may take a look at this book. (But, do not expect more from those driver chapters. it is not for you to understand how it work. it is merely for what devices are there) I purchased this book by just reading the reviews here, and got disappointed a lot. I can not believe how people gave more than 2 stars to this book. I believe that if you are real software engineer from linux related field, you can not give more than 2 stars. This book looks like just a collection of “copy and paste” from many device drivers source code, and explanation is very superficial (I felt that this book is just like his jot downs from his work plus some copy and paste from linux driver codes). If you are real device driver developer, this book will not help at all. I would recommend linux device drivers 3rd edition from oreily even though it does not cover latest kernel.
Rating: 1 / 5
I tried to find docomentation about Module.symvers, linking at runtime, symbol issues, etc… No luck. At least the o’reilly book touches on these topics.
Rating: 3 / 5