Newbie questions: Driver dev

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PeterLinuxer
Posts: 122
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:19 pm

Newbie questions: Driver dev

Post by PeterLinuxer »

Ok, I'm giving ROS development a try. As a newbie I have a lot of questions, off course.

1.) What assembler is used (for the Non-C-part of drivers)?

2.) If I setup the recommended 2 PCs with Nullmodem cable can the Ros PC be without monitor? [Edit: I mean does it make sense to run ROS completely automated and headless?]

3.) Does driver dev on Qemu make sense?

4.) This site mentions some books on NT driver dev:
https://www.osronline.com/article.cfm%5eid=176.htm
Which one would you recommend?
ReactOS is in early development phase! And ReactOS is not Linux.
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dizt3mp3r
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Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:54 pm

Re: Newbie questions: Driver dev

Post by dizt3mp3r »

Peter, go to Mattermost and join the TownSquare, start asking your questions there and then when you feel confident, join the development discussion.
Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.
PeterLinuxer
Posts: 122
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:19 pm

Re: Newbie questions: Driver dev

Post by PeterLinuxer »

Ok thanks for the answer :)
ReactOS is in early development phase! And ReactOS is not Linux.
ThFabba
Developer
Posts: 293
Joined: Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:39 am

Re: Newbie questions: Driver dev

Post by ThFabba »

1. Drivers should not use assembly.
2. Depends on what you're doing, but most likely you'll need a monitor on the ROS machine (e.g. to go through first stage setup)
3. If QEMU has the device you're developing for (or you're writing a software-only driver), yes. (though at some point you should test it with real hardware, too, since there may be slight differences in behavior). QEMU can be rather slow, though, so either enabling KVM or using VirtualBox/VMware (possibly Hyper-V/Xen) instead may be more efficient, if that's an option.
I don't have an answer for 4.

And on a final note: drivers (and applications) for ReactOS should be developed on Windows. Otherwise bugs in ROS may cause you to introduce bugs in your driver.
PeterLinuxer
Posts: 122
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:19 pm

Re: Newbie questions: Driver dev

Post by PeterLinuxer »

Ah thx for your reply.

I guess the HAL takes care of the nitty-gritty Asm coding.
Or maybe only the kernel init needs Asm.

And thanks for the tip about using Windows.
ReactOS is in early development phase! And ReactOS is not Linux.
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dizt3mp3r
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Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:54 pm

Re: Newbie questions: Driver dev

Post by dizt3mp3r »

This is not C++, not C but VB6 driver development...

https://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php ... highlight=

I'm not saying you should go down this route but it might be interesting from a newbie perspective.
Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.
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