3 replies to this topic

[Marcinnnn]

Hi,

I need and want to learn programming drivers. The are many tutorials both for BSD and Linux so that isn't a problem. I just want to ask is there somekind RFC (Request For Comment) for hardware (wifi card) or I should just ask company which produces device (Realtek in my example)? Someone wrote RTL8187 driver for Linux, another guy made patch, so it should be somewhere. "realtek 8187 driver documentation" or anything like that in google doesn't work for me - I just don't know something simple needed to find stuff like this or maybe I just should use English :D more often ;-)

Thanks in advance

[WingedPanther]

Most drivers are written by reverse-engineering what they do under windows. Unless you know the (normally unpublished) hardware specs, that's about all you can do.

[Marcinnnn]

hm.. so I should take somekind disassembler or decompiler on Windows take manual for writing drivers on Windows and compare it to manual for BSD. Then I should made changes in the code and compile it back, right?

[theonejb]

If someone has made the driver for Linux already, the source code may be available. Study that. It's probably easier than trying to reverse-engineer the Windows driver.