-------------------------
Major and minor numbers for block and character devices are allocated
-by the Linux assigned name and number authority (currently better
-known as H Peter Anvin). The site is http://www.lanana.org/. This
+by the Linux assigned name and number authority (currently this is
+Torben Mathiasen). The site is http://www.lanana.org/. This
also deals with allocating numbers for devices that are not going to
be submitted to the mainstream kernel.
+See Documentation/devices.txt for more information on this.
-If you don't use assigned numbers then when you device is submitted it will
-get given an assigned number even if that is different from values you may
+If you don't use assigned numbers then when your device is submitted it will
+be given an assigned number even if that is different from values you may
have shipped to customers before.
Who To Submit Drivers To
------------------------
Linux 2.0:
- No new drivers are accepted for this kernel tree
+ No new drivers are accepted for this kernel tree.
Linux 2.2:
+ No new drivers are accepted for this kernel tree.
+
+Linux 2.4:
If the code area has a general maintainer then please submit it to
the maintainer listed in MAINTAINERS in the kernel file. If the
maintainer does not respond or you cannot find the appropriate
- maintainer then please contact Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
-
-Linux 2.4:
- The same rules apply as 2.2. The final contact point for Linux 2.4
- submissions is Marcelo Tosatti <marcelo.tosatti@cyclades.com>.
+ maintainer then please contact Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu>.
Linux 2.6:
The same rules apply as 2.4 except that you should follow linux-kernel
to track changes in API's. The final contact point for Linux 2.6
- submissions is Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>.
+ submissions is Andrew Morton.
What Criteria Determine Acceptance
----------------------------------
Licensing: The code must be released to us under the
GNU General Public License. We don't insist on any kind
- of exclusively GPL licensing, and if you wish the driver
+ of exclusive GPL licensing, and if you wish the driver
to be useful to other communities such as BSD you may well
wish to release under multiple licenses.
+ See accepted licenses at include/linux/module.h
Copyright: The copyright owner must agree to use of GPL.
It's best if the submitter and copyright owner
are the same person/entity. If not, the name of
the person/entity authorizing use of GPL should be
listed in case it's necessary to verify the will of
- the copright owner.
+ the copyright owner.
Interfaces: If your driver uses existing interfaces and behaves like
other drivers in the same class it will be much more likely
- to be accepted than if it invents gratuitous new ones.
+ to be accepted than if it invents gratuitous new ones.
If you need to implement a common API over Linux and NT
drivers do it in userspace.
driver that intentionally obfuscates how the hardware works
it will go in the bitbucket.
+PM support: Since Linux is used on many portable and desktop systems, your
+ driver is likely to be used on such a system and therefore it
+ should support basic power management by implementing, if
+ necessary, the .suspend and .resume methods used during the
+ system-wide suspend and resume transitions. You should verify
+ that your driver correctly handles the suspend and resume, but
+ if you are unable to ensure that, please at least define the
+ .suspend method returning the -ENOSYS ("Function not
+ implemented") error. You should also try to make sure that your
+ driver uses as little power as possible when it's not doing
+ anything. For the driver testing instructions see
+ Documentation/power/drivers-testing.txt and for a relatively
+ complete overview of the power management issues related to
+ drivers see Documentation/power/devices.txt .
+
Control: In general if there is active maintainance of a driver by
- the author then patches will be redirected to them unless
+ the author then patches will be redirected to them unless
they are totally obvious and without need of checking.
If you want to be the contact and update point for the
driver it is a good idea to state this in the comments,
Vendor: Being the hardware vendor and maintaining the driver is
often a good thing. If there is a stable working driver from
other people already in the tree don't expect 'we are the
- vendor' to get your driver chosen. Ideally work with the
+ vendor' to get your driver chosen. Ideally work with the
existing driver author to build a single perfect driver.
Author: It doesn't matter if a large Linux company wrote the driver,
ftp.??.kernel.org:/pub/linux/kernel/...
?? == your country code, such as "us", "uk", "fr", etc.
-Linux kernel mailing list:
+Linux kernel mailing list:
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
[mail majordomo@vger.kernel.org to subscribe]
Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition (covers 2.6.10):
http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ (free version)
-Kernel traffic:
- Weekly summary of kernel list activity (much easier to read)
- http://www.kerneltraffic.org/kernel-traffic/
-
LWN.net:
Weekly summary of kernel development activity - http://lwn.net/
2.6 API changes:
http://kernelnewbies.org/
Linux USB project:
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-usb/
+ http://www.linux-usb.org/
+
+How to NOT write kernel driver by Arjan van de Ven:
+ http://www.fenrus.org/how-to-not-write-a-device-driver-paper.pdf
+Kernel Janitor:
+ http://janitor.kernelnewbies.org/
git://ftp.safe.ca / safe / jmp / linux-2.6 / blobdiff