I've seen two ways to install Windows drivers.
a. Using both SYS file and INF file. (such as NDIS driver)
b. Only use SYS file, the driver will be loaded by a service. (such as drivers in
C:\Windows\System32\drivers)
So, my question is:
1. What kind of drivers or situations require INF a file?
2. What is the root cause of this difference?
There are different kinds of drivers on Windows. Each type of driver has its own story for how the driver is installed. Here are a few common types of drivers.
PNP device driver. A PNP device driver operates a device in the device tree. PNP drivers are loaded by PNP when the device is enumerated by its parent bus. In order for PNP to know which type of device your driver supports (and a bunch of other stuff), you need a PNP-style INF that describes your driver.
SCM-managed driver (sometimes called "legacy driver"). SCM loads these drivers based on the same rules it uses to start NT services. SCM does not require any INF. You can register a new driver with SCM by simply running sc.exe create my_cool_driver type=kernel binPath=c:\my\driver.sys start=auto or calling the CreateService API. But if you already have an INF for other reasons, you can use any style of INF to do the same via the AddService directive.
NDIS lightweight filter (LWF) driver. LWFs are not loaded by NDIS; NDIS doesn't care how they're loaded. Most LWFs choose to be loaded by SCM, since that's easy to control. An NetCfg-style INF is still required, though, since NDIS needs to know what types of network adapters to attach the filter to (Ethernet vs WLAN, for example).
Export driver. An export driver is loaded by the memory manager when Mm is trying to load some other driver that imports functions from it. An export driver is just a kernel equivalent of a DLL — it just provides APIs to other drivers. Export drivers don't need an INF; they just need to be put into the right directory on disk. If you already have an INF for other reasons, you can use the CopyFiles directive to do this.
WinUSB driver. WinUSB is a built-in driver that delegates most of the responsibilities of managing a USB device to usermode APIs, so any application can easily do simple things with the device. This means pretty much any application can be the driver for the device. If the USB device puts certain data in its hardware descriptor, Windows will know to automatically set up WinUSB, so no INF is required. But if the hardware does not advertise that it needs WinUSB, then you'll need a WinUSB-style INF to tell Windows to set up WinUSB for you. Beyond that, you don't need an INF to call WinUSB APIs from your application.
If you're just experimenting and want to call a few kernel APIs for fun, you can choose any type of driver. Most people find that an SCM-managed driver is the easiest, since you don't need any INF and you get full control over when the driver starts and stops. But in any other situation, the choice of driver type is largely dictated by the problem you're trying to solve. For example, if you're writing a driver for a PCI GPU, you must use a PNP driver, and therefore must have a PCI-style INF.
Related
I have an "off the shelf" commercial software using an ANT USB dongle to communicate with a cycling trainer.
My trainer is not compatible with the software because the protocol is slightly different (not a lot).
My goal is to write a protocol translator. The only thing I can think of is to write a UMDF virtual device driver (like Magic ISO Virtual DVD) looking like an ANT USB Device in the device manager (same PID\VID) while connecting itself to the physical ANT device. The virtual device driver will perform the protocol translation.
I looked at several examples from Microsoft here https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-driver-samples but I was unable to find anything relevant. I thought this example would be a good start https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-driver-samples-master/Sensors/CustomSensors but it is impossible to load the driver using the given procedure from the inf file.
BTW I am familiar with the content of INF files and the basics of KMDF & UMDF device drivers programming. My problem is to write something that will load in the device manager and present itself as a real USB device even if it is not enumerated by the USB bus subsystem.
Can anybody with driver development experience point me to some relevant code sample or documentation?
Best regards !
I am currently developing a UMDF CCID (smartcard reader) driver. This project helped me at the beginning because it compiles out of the box and creates virtual device nodes (smartcard readers) visible in the device manager.
I'm working on a project where I have a management system that exports PCIe hardware devices to other systems via PCI Express. I have a working management kernel module but need to find a way to ensure that a device I export doesn't have a driver already loaded for it on the management system. Without that, the device will end up with conflicts since the same driver will be accessing it from 2 different systems & obviously cause problems.
For example, assume I have a dual-port Intel 100MBps NIC device installed on the Manager which will show up 2 PCIe Endpoints in the system (eg Fn 0 & 1). The Intel module e1000 will be loaded for both devices. If I want to export port 2 of that device to another system, I would like to "detach" it from the e1000 module.
Does anyone know a clean way of doing this without hacking the kernel or tweaking the e1000's driver's probe function? I can't simply do an rmmod because that will remove the module all-together for both NIC devices. I would like the NIC I'm not exporting to remain functional in the Management system with the e1000 driver still loaded for it.
Essentially, rmmod does this but will remove the driver for all devices probed for & owned by the driver. Any way to tell Linux just "unload module for only this specific device"? On Windows, I guess this would be the equivalent of right-clicking on a device in Device Manager & select "Disable".
You can disable driver for your device by writting following method:
Use sudo -i or before any command write sudo to operate as root user.And follow below procedure:
Goto /sys/bus/pci/<driver_name>/ folder.
Give command echo -n 0000:03:00.1 > unbind
Where 0000:03:00.1 is device you want to detech your driver.
Read this link for getting idea about sysfs for pci bus.
The mechanism responsible for device/driver pairing in Linux driver model is called "bus" (usually controlled through entries in /sys/bus). The problem is, the particular bus driver your device is attached to must support this sort of action (and it is far from trivial supporting this functionality in general case).
Specifically for PCI, if you've got "pci hotplug" enabled, you will be able to kick devices off pci bus by writing numbers to corresponding "hotplug" entries in /sys/bus/pci (you can also reconnect them back by triggering the bus rescan). The problems will start later, as you will have to somehow convince the Linux device subsystem to prefer your driver over the one already registered for the device id in question.
Normally registered drivers are added to some sort of list and then tried out one by one to see if either of them is listing the new or re-enabled device in their "*_device_id" tables. If PCI subsystem prefers to try drivers in "first registered, first tried" order you will have to hack it to achieve your goal.
To unbind a PCI driver from a device, use the unbind file of the driver in sysfs.
From Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-pci:
/sys/bus/pci/drivers/.../unbind
Description:
Writing a device location to this file will cause the
driver to attempt to unbind from the device found at
this location. This may be useful when overriding default
bindings. The format for the location is: DDDD:BB:DD.F.
That is Domain:Bus:Device.Function and is the same as
found in /sys/bus/pci/devices/. For example:
# echo 0000:00:19.0 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/foo/unbind
you can disable a particular pci device by resetting enable value for the corresponding device
Eg:
echo 0 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1a.2/enable
I am trying to find what happens when new driver is installed for windows. (What kernel data structures are modified.) Does anyone know any good documentation on this topic. It is a bit painful to debug this.
Thanks
When a driver is installed is it placed into the Driver Store (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff544868%28v=vs.85%29.aspx)
When a new device is discovered that does not have a current driver association the PNP manager looks at the driver store to see if any of the stored drivers will match the new device.
If the PNP manager finds a driver to match the device it will execute the directives in the drivers inf file. This typically creates a service entry in the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services), copies the driver binaries to somewhere like \Windows\System32\drivers etc. Also the PNP manager will create an association of that device to that driver (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum I think) so that next time it can shortcut the process.
I don't think any kernel data structures are modified when a driver is installed. Do you mean to ask when a driver is loaded?
I am trying to complete the picture of how the PC and the OS interacts together. And I am at point, where I am little out of guess when it comes to device drivers.
Please, don´t write things like its too complicated, or you don´t need to know when using high programming laguage and winapi functions. I want to know, it´s for study purposes.
So, the very basic structure of how OS and PC (by PC I mean of course HW) is how I see it is that all other than direct CPU commands, which can CPU do on itself (arithmetic operation, its registers access and memory access) must pass thru OS. Mainly becouse from ring level 3 you cannot use in and out intructions which are used for acesing other HW. I know that there is MMIO,but it must be set by port comunication first.
It was not like this all the time. Even I am bit young to remember MSDOS, I know you could access HW directly, becouse there ws no limitation, no ring mode. So you could to write string to diplay use wheather DOS function, or directly acess video card memory and write it by yourself.
But as OS developed, there is no longer this possibility. But it is fine, since OS now handles all the HW comunication, and frankly it more convinient and much more safe (I would say the only option) in multitasking environment. So nowdays you instead of using int instructions to use BIOS mapped function or DOS function you call dll which internally than handles everything you don´t need to know about.
I understand this. I also undrstand that device drivers is the piece of code that runs in ring level 0, so it can do all the HW interactions. But what I don´t understand is connection between OS and device driver. Let´s take a example - I want to make a sound card make a sound. So I call windows API to acess sound card, but what happens than? Does windows call device drivers to do so?
But if it does call device driver, does it mean, that all device drivers which can be called by winAPI function, must have routines named in some specific way? I mean, when I have new sound card, must its drivers have functions named same as the old one? So Windows can actually call the same function from its perspective? But if Windows have predefined sets of functions requored by device drivers, that it cannot use new drivers that doesent existed before last version of OS came out.
Please, help me understand this mess. I am really getting mad. Thanks.
A Windows device driver is a bit like a DLL: except that instead of an application dynamic linking/loading it, it's the O/S that dynamic links/loads it.
Registry entries tell the O/S what device drivers exist (so that the O/S knows which device drivers to dynamic-link/load).
The device drivers run in ring 0. In ring zero, they (device drivers) don't have access to (can't link to or use) Windows APIs: instead they have access to various NT kernel APIs.
But if it does call device driver, does it mean, that all device drivers which can be called by winAPI function, must have routines named in some specific way? I mean, when I have new sound card, must its drivers have functions named same as the old one? So Windows can actually call the same function from its perspective?
Basically yes. All the device drivers within a given type or class (e.g. all video drivers, or all disk drivers) have a similar API, which is invoked by the O/S (and/or invoked by higher-level drivers, for example disk drivers are used/invoked by file system drivers).
The Windows Device Driver Kit defines the various APIs and includes sample drivers for the various types of device.
But if Windows have predefined sets of functions requored by device drivers, that it cannot use new drivers that doesent existed before last version of OS came out.
The O/S is dynamic-linking to the device driver functions: because device driver APIs are predefined, device drivers are interchangeable as far as the O/S is concerned; new device drivers can be written, provided they support (are backward-compatible with) the standard device driver API.
The dynamic-linking mechanism is very similar to the way in which COM objects or C++ classes implement any predefined pure-abstract interface: a header file in the DDK declares the pure-abstract interface (like virtual functions), device drivers implement these functions, and the O/S loads the drivers and invokes these functions.
The basics:
Please note that this explanation is simplified and sometime only true for most cases and not all.
Most HW devices you will ever encounter will have these basic operations:
Write to memory(or Registers) on them.
Read from memory(or Registers) on them.
This is enough to control the HW, to give it the data it needs, and to get the data you want from it.
These memory areas are mapped by the BIOS and/or the OS to the Physical memory range on your PC (which may in turn be accessed by your driver.)
So we now have two operations READ and WRITE that the device driver knows to do.
In addition, the driver can read and write in a manner that does not involve the cpu. This is called Direct Memory Access (DMA) and usually performed by your HW.
The last type of operation is called INTERRUPTS and is meant for your HW to notify your driver of something that just happend. This is usually done by the HW interrupting the CPU and calling your driver to perform some operation in high priority. For example: an image is ready in the HW to be read by the driver.
This may not be considered to be directly programming related but I am at a loss to know where else to ask. I have tried looking at a variety of websites but so far Google has not been my friend.
I am having trouble finding out whether I need to write my own device driver for the various windows/linux/mac platforms that the device I am developing may be connected to, or whether the functionality is provided by the standard drivers.
My device is a USB CDC (communications device) that appears as a COM: port. It also includes a battery charger that will, once the device has been enumerated require the full 5 unit load (500mA) supply current that can be drawn from the USB connector. My problem is that if the USB driver in the host decides that it cannot deliver the full supply current then it should fail to enumerate the device.
If, as a fallback, I provide a second configuration set that only allows the device to draw 1 unit load from the interface connector will the standard drivers enumerate the device using this configuration.
You need to write a .inf file for Windows that ties up your device VID and PID with the system usbser.sys. Mine looks like this (Replace YourCompany as necessary, put in your VID and PID (in hex), and change the DriverVer line to whatever date and version you want):
; -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
; XP/2000 USB Comms Port Setup
; -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Version]
DriverVer=12/03/2008,1.0.0000.0000
Signature="$Windows NT$"
Class=Ports
ClassGUID={4d36e978-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Provider=%YourCompany%
[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir=10,system32\drivers
DriverCopyFiles=12
[ControlFlags]
ExcludeFromSelect = *
[Manufacturer]
%YourCOmpany%=YourCompanySerialPort
[YourCompanySerialPort]
%YourCompanyUSBSerialPort%=YOURCOMPANYUSB,USB\VID_1234&PID_ABCD
;
; Win 2000/XP
;
[YOURCOMPANYUSB]
Include=mdmcpq.inf
CopyFiles=FakeModemCopyFileSection
[YOURCOMPANYUSB.HW]
AddReg=YOURCOMPANYUSBAddReg.HW
[YOURCOMPANYUSBAddReg.HW]
HKR,,DevLoader,0,*ntkern
HKR,,NTMPDriver,,"usbser.sys"
[YOURCOMPANYUSB.Services]
AddService=usbser, 0x00000002, FuncDrv_Service_Inst
[FuncDrv_Service_Inst]
DisplayName=%USBFilterString%
ServiceType= 1
StartType = 3
ErrorControl = 0
ServiceBinary = %12%\usbser.sys
[Strings]
YourCompany="YourCompany"
YourCompanySerialPort="Your Company USB Serial Port"
USBFilterString = "USB Serial Service"
Note this works with 32 bit OSs only. It also works with Vista although the file header doesn't say so!
Be aware that some versions of usbser.sys have significant problems, including bluescreening, for example when transferring packets that are exact multiples of 64 bytes. If you're using XP SP2 or previous then install hotfix KB943198. XP SP3 and Vista are fine.
For the Mac you simply need to report your device class correctly and the driver scan picks up the correct drivers. (Windows ignores the device class which is why you need to supply the .inf file).
EDIT: Sorry, I should have been clearer. This will not fail to enumerate if it can't draw the full load - I'm not sure that's possible.
You are correct on the driver question. When the device is plugged in and goes through the enumeration process it is required to stay < 100mA. The host will interrogate and determine the configuration(s). If there are more than one which support different power levels, then the driver will need to decide to select the appropriate configuration. If there is only high-power and it is not available, then it will not enumerate the device. In general, the standard driver doing CDC wouldn't be aware of the different device level configurations that would possible and so would require some degree of customization to handle them.
I am not sure about power question but ther is pleanty CDC drivers (or I think there is) so you could use one. For the power question, the solution with many configuration is probably good one, I have never encountered this in work (I have USB analyzer) but at home sometimes when I have 3 or more different devices that requires power from USB I got failed enumeration. I supose this is operating system choice if it can't supply power to new device it cut's it off (sensible choice as it can't power it). This is my gues rather checking USB standart.
If your device reports a device ID that the host OS already supports,
then they won't need a driver.
You may need to impersonate an existing USB uart. Data sheets are readily available.
(But I figure you already knew that.)
I'm not sure that the host OS will honour your multi-configuration idea.
But give it a punt so we all know!
If your device is connecting as USB CDC-ACM device to the windows desktop host, the windows desktop already provides the driver usbser.sys. But there are some some issues in windows Vista. You just need the inf to install the usbser.sys on desktop. For WinCE you do not have the driver and for you need to write or get one from any third party vendor. Here is one
http://www.em.avant-garde-lab.com/Products.html
If your device specifies itself as self powered in its device descriptor then the host would rely on the devices self power capability. You can check at usb.org for details.
Thanks.