Motorola MCP750 Specifications download pdf (Page 223)

14-1

Chapter 14Driver Installation and Tuning

For device driver writers, installation means different things. If you are installing a driver

for a piece of hardware, for example, you'll have some hardware-related installation proce-

dures to follow. When you install the driver you've written on your computer for the ﬁrst

time, you probably are installing the driver without the installation scripts recommended

for customer use. When you do create the device driver package for customers, installa-

tion takes on a different meaning.

This chapter discusses how to install device drivers using Installable Driver Tools (also

known as idtools) and Driver Software Packages (DSPs). Tuning and configuring is also

covered, concentrating mainly on those details specific to device drivers, and on features

new for this release of the UNIX system. This chapter also describes the idtools and tun-

able parameter commands that are used with device drivers.

For more information about software packaging, refer to System Administration Volume 1.

Using idtools 14

Device drivers (and other types of kernel modules) are packaged, installed, and conﬁgured

into the system using a collection of configuration files, commands, and scripts known as

the Installable Driver Tools, or idtools. (They have also been known as the Installable

Driver/Tunable Parameter (ID/TP) scheme and as the Installable Device Tools.)

It is important to note that the idtools has automated much of what used to be manual edit-

ing of driver configuration files. There are several benefits to automating this process,

among them being decreased chances of total system failure because a single ﬁle has been

lost or corrupted, fewer problems when installing a new driver, and a much simpler pro-

cess for removing installed drivers.

Although you might create the configuration file without using idtools, once the file

becomes part of a device driver, everything you do with the file from then on—from

installing it, to rebuilding the UNIX system kernel, to removing the driver from the sys-

tem—should all be done using idtools.

Detailed information on each of the idtools commands can be found in the Section 1M

manual pages in the Command Reference.

idtools Utilities and Commands 14

In a driver add-on package, the postinstall script executes idcheck, idtune,

idinstall,andidbuild to install the package and rebuild the kernel. Manual pages

1 2 ... 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 ... 343 344

No comments

Motorola MCP750 Specifications Page 223