Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-25 Thread Brian D. Moffet
I have to agree here, one of the major issues in writing device drivers, which I used to do for a living, is getting proper documentation for the devices themselves. For something like video cards, it's even worse because the cards change so rapidly. I can imagine that there will be some issues

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Greg Lehey
On Monday, 24 January 2000 at 10:04:10 +0100, Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai wrote: > -On [2124 08:01], Mike Smith ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: >>> I can't agree with Mike Smith that reading the code is adequate. It >>> certainly doesn't apply to newcomers, but it doesn't even apply to >>> seasoned hac

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Greg Lehey
On Monday, 24 January 2000 at 17:40:13 +0900, Daniel C. Sobral wrote: > Documenting the available debugging tools and useful debugging > techniques would be mostly welcome. Aside from "how do I use the kernel > debugger", use of tools such as truss, and loading symbol tables to > kld's (see Greg L

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Greg Lehey
On Monday, 24 January 2000 at 7:09:35 -0800, Mike Smith wrote: >> On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Mike Smith wrote: >> I can't agree with Mike Smith that reading the code is adequate. It certainly doesn't apply to newcomers, but it doesn't even apply to seasoned hackers like Mike: the BSD st

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Greg Lehey
On Monday, 24 January 2000 at 2:28:23 -0500, Chuck Robey wrote: > On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, William A. Maniatty wrote: > >> Both Chuck Robey and Mike Smith have some points, but that won't >> stop me from giving my opinion :-). Mike is correct that experience is >> key to being a solid systems softwa

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Greg Lehey
On Monday, 24 January 2000 at 2:44:43 -0500, William A. Maniatty wrote: > Hi There: > > Chuck Robey Writes: >> I know where Mike's coming from. Wait until the next guy posts on the >> list "I don't really know how to program, but please tell what 'C' is, and >> how to write a device driver". We

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Greg Lehey
On Sunday, 23 January 2000 at 22:35:53 -0800, Mike Smith wrote: >> I can't agree with Mike Smith that reading the code is adequate. It >> certainly doesn't apply to newcomers, but it doesn't even apply to >> seasoned hackers like Mike: the BSD style doesn't provide for adequate >> comments, and s

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Sergey Babkin
Mike Smith wrote: > > Writing documentation is a resource-sucking nuisance; supporting outdated > documentation even more so. The BSD driver model is sufficiently simple I think that there might be a compromise solution: when someone learns the interface from analysing the code he might as well

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Warner Losh
In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai writes: : So my statement was actually more in reflection to NetBSD's support of : it. Whether or not they support busses which do 8 byte atomic : reads/writes I am not sure of. : : Thanks for the reality adjustment Warner. =) Yes. Looking

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
-On [2124 19:55], Warner Losh ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: >In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai >writes: >: >As long as a device is just inb/outb (I seem to recall newbus have a >: >replacement for these) >: >: bus_space_read_#() / bus_space_write_#() >: >: Where # is 1, 2,

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Warner Losh
In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai writes: : >As long as a device is just inb/outb (I seem to recall newbus have a : >replacement for these) : : bus_space_read_#() / bus_space_write_#() : : Where # is 1, 2, 4, or 8. But I don't think we support atomic 8 byte : atomic reads an

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
-On [2124 08:01], Chuck Robey ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > >The problem is, you can't even find what the interfaces are. Reading the >code isn't very useful if you can't even find the right place to start >from. At least the interface points could be listed, so that someone >would know where

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
-On [2124 10:13], William A. Maniatty ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: >Is it possible to get a look at the digital Unix guides, that might be a >good starting point. Are they on line (perhaps you have a URL)? http://www.unix.digital.com/faqs/publications/dev_doc/DOCUMENTATION/HTML/Digital_UNIX_B

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
-On [2124 10:13], Daniel C. Sobral ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: >As long as a device is just inb/outb (I seem to recall newbus have a >replacement for these) bus_space_read_#() / bus_space_write_#() Where # is 1, 2, 4, or 8. But I don't think we support atomic 8 byte atomic reads and writes.

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Mike Smith
> On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Mike Smith wrote: > > > > I can't agree with Mike Smith that reading the code is adequate. It > > > certainly doesn't apply to newcomers, but it doesn't even apply to > > > seasoned hackers like Mike: the BSD style doesn't provide for adequate > > > comments, and so what y

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
-On [2124 10:13], Daniel C. Sobral ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: >Bill Maniatty wrote: >> >> First we want to get the mechanism of driver installation down, then >> try our hands at writing our own driver. I fear that if we roll our own >> driver software we may find that if we have errors (not

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
-On [2124 08:01], Mike Smith ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: >> I can't agree with Mike Smith that reading the code is adequate. It >> certainly doesn't apply to newcomers, but it doesn't even apply to >> seasoned hackers like Mike: the BSD style doesn't provide for adequate >> comments, and so wh

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Daniel C. Sobral
Bill Maniatty wrote: > > First we want to get the mechanism of driver installation down, then > try our hands at writing our own driver. I fear that if we roll our own > driver software we may find that if we have errors (not that we ever have > errors mind you :-) we may not be able to isolate

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-24 Thread Matthew N. Dodd
On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, William A. Maniatty wrote: > I'm probably not quite cool enough to be in on the joke here, but what > is a dog polisher? You use it to polish your dog. Since all good dog polishers connect to computers running unix, you need a device driver to interface with the dog polisher

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread William A. Maniatty
Matthew Dodd wrote: [stuff about stepwise refinement approach deleted] >The Digital Unix device driver writers guides are kinda nifty like that. > Is it possible to get a look at the digital Unix guides, that might be a good starting point. Are they on line (perhaps you have a URL)? > Is it poss

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread William A. Maniatty
Hi There: Chuck Robey Writes: >I know where Mike's coming from. Wait until the next guy posts on the >list "I don't really know how to program, but please tell what 'C' is, and >how to write a device driver". We had a pretty nasty flamewar over that >maybe (I think) 9 months ago, and it still h

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Matthew N. Dodd
On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, William A. Maniatty wrote: > Actually a document with a step by step development of a very simple > driver might actually tell someone how to write a driver AND give them > their first experience at writing a driver :-). The Digital Unix device driver writers guides are kinda

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Chuck Robey
On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, William A. Maniatty wrote: > Both Chuck Robey and Mike Smith have some points, but that won't > stop me from giving my opinion :-). Mike is correct that experience is > key to being a solid systems software developer, who writes device drivers. > Now the next question is how

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread William A. Maniatty
Chuck Robey writes: >On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Mike Smith wrote: > >> > I can't agree with Mike Smith that reading the code is adequate. It >> > certainly doesn't apply to newcomers, but it doesn't even apply to >> > seasoned hackers like Mike: the BSD style doesn't provide for adequate >> > comments

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Chuck Robey
On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Mike Smith wrote: > > I can't agree with Mike Smith that reading the code is adequate. It > > certainly doesn't apply to newcomers, but it doesn't even apply to > > seasoned hackers like Mike: the BSD style doesn't provide for adequate > > comments, and so what you see from

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Mike Smith
> I can't agree with Mike Smith that reading the code is adequate. It > certainly doesn't apply to newcomers, but it doesn't even apply to > seasoned hackers like Mike: the BSD style doesn't provide for adequate > comments, and so what you see from the code is mainly tactics, not > strategy. You

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Bill Maniatty
> On Sunday, 23 January 2000 at 11:48:39 -0500, Bill Maniatty wrote: > > Hello Jeroen: > > Jeroen Ruigrok (in response to Greg Lehey and myself): > > > >> -On [2123 11:11], Greg Lehey ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > 2) Choose a non-essential device with a simple preexisting driver. > 3)

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Greg Lehey
On Sunday, 23 January 2000 at 11:48:39 -0500, Bill Maniatty wrote: > Hello Jeroen: > Jeroen Ruigrok (in response to Greg Lehey and myself): > >> -On [2123 11:11], Greg Lehey ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: 2) Choose a non-essential device with a simple preexisting driver. 3) Remove all tr

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Warner Losh
I'd also concentrate more on the relatively completely newbused drivers: dev/ed dev/ep dev/sn and ignore the incomplete ones, of which only one comes to bind (aha). Warner To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of t

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Alex Zepeda
On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai wrote: > >A possibly better alternative is to find a device which isn't > >currently supported by FreeBSD and write a driver for it. This would > >have the advantage that the work would also be a contribution to > >FreeBSD. The question that I can't a

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread William A. Maniatty
Mike Smith Writes (in response to me): > >> >> Actually the lack a reference or tutorial document is kind of damning >> in a way, since it gives hardware vendors a powerful excuse not to >> support FreeBSD in the way that say Lin*x is supported. > >We have a better solution; they just give us th

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Mike Smith
> > Actually the lack a reference or tutorial document is kind of damning > in a way, since it gives hardware vendors a powerful excuse not to > support FreeBSD in the way that say Lin*x is supported. We have a better solution; they just give us the documentation and we write the drivers for th

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Andrzej Bialecki
On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Bill Maniatty wrote: > > Definately not an ethernet card. *g* > > Seems no-one can keep up with Bill Paul in that aspect. =) > > We probably could not compete :-), but we are interested in ethernet > card drivers (at some point) and would like to learn. > > > You could try

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Bill Maniatty
Hello Jeroen: Jeroen Ruigrok (in response to Greg Lehey and myself): > -On [2123 11:11], Greg Lehey ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > >[adding -doc, which is more appropriate for some of the questions] > > > >On Saturday, 22 January 2000 at 23:06:41 -0500, Bill Maniatty wrote: > > >> I have a st

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-23 Thread Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
-On [2123 11:11], Greg Lehey ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: >[adding -doc, which is more appropriate for some of the questions] > >On Saturday, 22 January 2000 at 23:06:41 -0500, Bill Maniatty wrote: >> I have a student this semester in my Operating Systems class who would like >> to become a bit

Re: Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-22 Thread Greg Lehey
[adding -doc, which is more appropriate for some of the questions] On Saturday, 22 January 2000 at 23:06:41 -0500, Bill Maniatty wrote: > Hello All: > > I have a student this semester in my Operating Systems class who would like > to become a bit more knowledgeable about systems software. I sugg

Learning the FreeBSD Kernel

2000-01-22 Thread Bill Maniatty
Hello All: I have a student this semester in my Operating Systems class who would like to become a bit more knowledgeable about systems software. I suggested that he learn a bit about how device drivers are written in FreeBSD as a minor project. My questions are: 1) Does any current documentat