What follows is really a learning exercise and not necessarily a search for a production solution. I've recently done a bunch of reading about Windows driver development and am looking for a first good exercise in practical application before potentially proceeding toward a future win10 mobile device family project.
Just to get my feet wet with win10 driver development, I was thinking it would be interesting to develop (and then publish) a filesystem driver project that implemented a dumb Windows equivalent of /dev/null or /dev/random - really, any virtual device that I can read a stream of data from.
I haven't done much Windows development in the past, but after reading through a couple books on Safari I've landed on MS's driver samples GitHub page, which seems like a good start, but doesn't seem to provide a clear way forward from what I've read so far.
Right now I'm still casting about with web searches and would sure appreciate some guidance in how to proceed toward this goal (references, reading materials, etc) I'll be happy to publish whatever silly project(s) I wind up generating for others to learn from in the future.
One of the best way to start Windows driver development is with toaster sample . It will provide you basic workable understanding of Windows driver development. You will be able to understand basics for writing bus driver, function driver and filter drivers(upper, lower) in Windows.
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I've been having a very confusing discussion with a colleague about the use of Network Direct in Windows to provide RDMA, and Linux where we have a working implementation using the verbs api and rdmacm.
Said collegue developed his Network Direct implementation after he couldn't get the verbs one to work. I did the rdmacm implementation under Linux. We both got them talking linux=>linux and windows=>windows but never got around to testing Linux=>windows or windows=>linux. During the development there was some hint of it possibly working, they appeared to start talking but of course things were still in development.
The project was put on hold for months and the framework that it was built into has had significant redesign. I'm left with pulling what was working from the Windows side into the new framework and I'm having a hard time getting it working or seeing any part of it connect from Linux.
My understanding is that at the lower layer they will both talk verbs. But I'm now not so sure with colleague saying things like "Remember this is not verbs", just to add to the confusion.
So the question is. will an application that uses rdmacm be able to establish a connection to an app that uses Windows NetworkDirect interface or are the two completely different and incompatible?
According to Mellanox support, Network Direct should be compatible with InfiniBand verbs. We've had good luck doing RDMA transfers using rdmacm Linux-Linux and Windows-Linux. We used the windows libraries available at open fabrics alliance (look for ofed_sdk). It was not easy to figure out what libraries to get in order to do the Windows part.
However, Microsoft does not want people to use the ibverbs approach on MS-Windows any more. If you are having trouble getting ND on Windows to talk to Linux, are you sure that you are putting the values in network order before shipping them over?
Are filter drivers intended to extend system drivers?
Is this their main purpose?
Are they basically just an extra layer that sits between the driver and the user?
This seems overly simple an explanation and I am wondering if I am missing something.
Are there good ways to learn more?
The driver topic is a very advanced one.
To get an overview, you can have a closer look on the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) sides.
If you decide to get into this stuff, then you need a lot of time, frustration resistance and fanaticism.
The first thing you should do (befor you touch the WDK!) is, to start reading a good book.
If you want to develop for windows file system, read Rajeev Nagar's book "Windows NT File System Internals : A Developer's Guide". It's published in 1997, but it's something like the "bible" of NTFS.
For common driver developement you can find books like "Developing Drivers with the Windows Driver Foundation", written by Penny Orwick.
These books describes programming kernel mode software, which is done in C language. So, you should have a good base knowlege on C before you start.
Among others there are the OSR side (www.osr.com) and SysInternals on technet (http://technet.microsoft.com/de-DE/sysinternals), which are truely worth to have a closer look on.
More than the halfe time you spend on reading debug outputs and crash dumps, so it's wise to know what these things are meaning and how to get this information, but there are good books for windows debugging too.
I hope, I was able to give a short overview on the question for the ways to learn more.
In a way yes.
For example, if file system filter driver is for file encryption/compression/security, it is enhancing the file system functionality.
The filter driver does not handle talking to actual devices. They rely on lower level drivers to communicate with device. The filter drivers are add-on to the drivers to implement certain functionality. The active drivers which modify data/request are to enhance vanilla drivers while the passive filter drivers are just pass-throughs without any direct enhancements.
So I think your assumptions are correct.
Will like to hear different views though.
I am currently in an university operating system class and we are working on the windows kernel, more precisely WRK, the windows research kernel, for our projects. WRK is based off of win2k3 server.
I am however having a real hard time dredging up resources to help learn the basics of OS development, Windows kernel development and just generally getting around the Windows API.
We are using the book Microsoft Internals by Russinovich but I was wondering if any of you had some great resources to recommend to me, whether book, online guides or some old class notes. Thanks!
What specifically are you looking for? Online resources? For that, OSROnline is one of the better websites. Alot of kernel development knowledge is found in the MS and the OSR Mailing lists, that's another place to check that might be better than Stack overflow.
Specifically books, there is the Programming WDM,Developing drivers with KMDF and Advance Windows Debugging. The last specifically will not teach you so much about the kernel and more how to navigate inside it, something you will do quite often if you are writing drivers or researching parts of it.
In order to write drivers, the easiest way is probably to take Windows Driver samples and hack at them, stare the results with windbg and learn more.
microsoft kernel dev? that's just weird. what university are you at?
one of the most interesting things about kernels, in my opinion, is the scheduler algorithms. I'd recommend you check that out.
I can't imagine where you'd start looking for windows stuff though. I did it with the linux kernel and there's a LOT of resources (of course).
http://oreilly.com/catalog/linuxkernel/chapter/ch10.html
The third edition of Tanenbaum's Modern Operating Systems has a chapter devoted to the Vista kernel. I haven't looked into that chapter (I only read the Linux one), but as far as big-picture stuff, it's fantastic. I'm not sure what level of detail you're looking for, but that might be a good resource to check out.
For my university I (and three others), are searching for a project that utilizes at least one embedded device, web services or other web technology, and a Graphical User Interface.
Currently we are looking at developing a unified remote, that is an extendable application on a cell phone through which you can control your media center. Any ideas, or advice on this will be appreciated, though it is not the focus of this question.
We are having a hard time finding interesting (or funny) projects on which we can work a complete semester. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. The software will be released as free software. (GPL or BSD license).
We all have a Bsc in Software Engineering.
EDIT: I am very pleased with the suggestions so far. Thanks to everyone, and keep it coming.
How about follower: carry a device, as you move from room to room in your house devices configure themselves to your preference - lights, music etc. If two people are in the room some precedence rules.
Is that possible just on the presence of a mobile phone?
Another idea (from the top of my head):
A work environment ensurance thing. We programmers like to develop in nice and quiet environments. Unfortunately some people tends to annoy us with their disturbing behaviour (or just by being loud).
So the project could be to create devices wich tracks the stress level (sweat levels, pulse etc.) of the individual and their impact onto others.
An example: One individual is very loud (the device should measure this), and others around him becomes stressed and/or unfocused because of this. The serverside sw, should then detect and warn him to quit down a bit to improve the work environment.
Comments?
What do you peeps like doing? Build an app for it.
So, if you like drinking coffee build a application which will find the nearest frothy coffee shoppe (or if you're particular, the nearest Peets/Starbucks/Whatever-ocino). This idea works for beer too.
If you buy stuff off e-Bay build a sniper app.
If you enjoy playing frisbee build an app which locates your nearest friends and sends them a text asking whether they want to goof off lectures and go to the park.
Heck, you could even build an app which monitors your SO questions and alerts you when you get an answer (although I don't know whether the data services SO currently offer will be up to the job).
The standout companies that have made great universal (programmable) remotes are : logitech, and philips.
One of the big problems with these types of devices is the ability of the general consumer to actually program all of their various devices. Logitech has done an outstanding job of providing a fairly simple Web based user setup experience that then implements a very usable universal control.
I would definitely look at what they have done for some ideas on universal remote controls.
How about an app and hardware that will tell me when my wife's plants need watering? (It's somehow my fault if they don't get watered.)
OK then: the recipe generating fridge. Rfid tags on the contents know what's available and the expiry dates. The database knows the recipes. The fridge emails/texts you to say "buy some mushrooms and you can have a delicous ham and mushroom omelette while the eggs are still fresh."
Benjamin and all those aspiring to do embedded projects ...
When you start a project, especially in embedded systems, you need to understand that the hardware is not your PC but some special device. And every sensor will be a transducer in itself. The only thing that would matter to students is that everything costs and are costly
So, it will be good to make sure that the idea is such that,
It can be completed by the
project members within the given timeframe
All the required development
tools like hardware etc can be
really bought
Of all, it good to ensure that the
project enables you to learn
something useful for your career ...
To do all this it is better set some achievable goals
Develop a system in which you can program the lighting system of your house. You can set up their schedule one time and everything should work automatically.
I really love working witht the Atmel ststk1000/stk1006/stk1002 development boards for tht AVR32. ATSTK1000
2x Ethernet
QVGA lcd
USB 2.0
SD/MMC
Conpact flash
Supported embedded linux
IR
Audio
ps2 interfaces
uarts
++
familiy atmel page:
AVR 32 family home
online forums
Forums for CPU
I'm trying to create a windows driver that allows a standard TCP/IP socket to be used like a COM Port. I am aware of a number of existing products that do just this, but can find no reference material as to how it's actually done! I understand some of the concepts of windows drivers (bus/function/filter drivers, driver stacks, etc), and have tried reading a book on WDF, but I'm still not 100% sure on where I start if there is no actual backing hardware. If anyone has any links/pointers that will help, it would be much appreciated.
Kazar
Take a look at the com0com project. They also offer an com2tcp driver. As it is open source you can go through the sources and get an idea of how it's done.
Actually this is not a driver, but an app, so it might be less helpful in your task to learn something about driver development, but anyway could be a good starter for some technical insight.