Linux kernel
programming
Vandana Salve,
LSI, Pune
Contents
Introduction to Linux systems
Kernel modules
Writing kernel modules
Devices in Linux
Writing sample character driver
A Linux system is…
Hardware
Boot Loader
Linux Kernel
Linux kernel modules
Root file systems
User-mode programs
Boot Loader
X86 Example
GRUB – Grand Unified boot loader
Configuration file /boot/grub/grub.conf
Kernel Binary image
/boot/vmlinuz-VERSION
Kernel Modules
Are dynamically loaded as needed by the kernel
Once loaded, becomes part of kernel and has full
access to all kernel functions
/lib/modules/VERSION
The search path for kernel modules
Root file system
The root “/” is a global hierarchical namespace
that contains several types of files
Regular files
Directories
Symbolic links
Character/Block special files
Named Pipes (FIFOs)
Kernel modules
Linux has the ability to extend at runtime the set of features
offered by the kernel
Each piece of code that can be added at runtime is called a
“module”.
Each module is made up of object code that can be dynamically
linked to the running kernel by “insmod” and can be unlinked by
“rmmod” program.
Once loaded, becomes part of kernel and has full access to all
kernel functions.
Utilities
Lsmod
Display list of currently loaded modules
/proc/modules
Modinfo
Display module information
/sbin/modinfo
Filename,description,author,license etc
Insmod
Insert a module
Rmmod
Remove a module
Modprobe
Loads modules plus any module dependencies
Uses info provided in
/lib/modules/Version/modules.dep
Updated by depmod command
Writing a simple kernel
module
/* hello-1.c - The simplest kernel module. */
#include <linux/module.h> /* Needed by all modules */
#include <linux/kernel.h> /* Needed for KERN_INFO */
int init_module(void)
{
printk(KERN_INFO "Hello world 1.\n");
return 0;
}
void cleanup_module(void)
{
printk(KERN_INFO "Goodbye world 1.\n");
}
MODULE_LICENSE(“GPL”);
MODULE_AUTHOR(DRIVER_AUTHOR);//author
MODULE_DESCRIPTION(“HELLO WORLD Module”);//what this module does
Makefile for a basic kernel
module (2.6kernel)
obj-m += hello-1.o
all:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) modules
clean:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) clean
Refer Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt : how to build modules
Use modinfo, #modinfo hello-1.ko
Use lsmod to list the module inserted
Check /var/log/messages
Passing command line arguments to the
module
Example
Device drivers
Option 1
Build device drivers into the kernel
Adv : driver available at boot time
Dis-adv: need to load drivers that are rarely
used,increase kernel size
Option 2
Build device driver as a kernel module
Adv : Load and unloaded as needed/not needed
Dis-adv: potential attempts to load “bad” module into
kernel
….continued
At the highest level of abstraction, all Linux
device drivers fit into 1 of 3 categories
Character device
Can be accessed as stream of bytes;transfer byte at a time to/from
user/kernel space
Block device
Block device is something that can host a file system such as a disk;
transfer block at a time to/from kernel filesystem
Network device
….continued
On Unix/Linux each piece of HW is represented by a file located in /dev/, named
device file which provides the means to communicate with the hardware
Major and Minor numbers
# ls –l /dev/hda*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 1 Jul 5 2000 /dev/hda1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 2 Jul 5 2000 /dev/hda2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 3 Jul 5 2000 /dev/hda3
Major number
Tells you which driver is used to access the hardware
All device files with same major number are controlled by same driver
Minor number
Is used by driver to distinguish between the various hardware it controls
Mknod command
Used to create the device file
See Documentation/devices.txt to see assigned major numbers
Character device drivers
File_operations structure
Every character driver needs to define functions
perform by the device
‘File_operations’ structure holds the address of
the modules functions that perform those
operations
File_operations defined in Linux/fs.h
….continued
Registering a device
Adding a driver to your system means registering
it with the kernel
“Register_chrdev” defined in Linux/fs.h
int register_chrdev(unsigned int major, const char
*name, struct file_operations *fops);
Major – major number
Name – name of device, as it appears in /proc/devices
Fops – file operation table
….continued
Unregistering a device
Whenever the module is unloaded, the major number
should be released
int unregister_chrdev(unsigned int major, const char
*name);
Major – major number
Name – name of device
Usage counter functions, defined in linux/module.h
try_module_get(THIS_MODULE);// Increment the use
count
module_put(THIS_MODULE);// Decrement the use count
Writing a simple character
driver
Examples
Useful References for kernel
programming
http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html
Kernel module programming,
http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
Device drivers programming
