Linux Device Drivers 2nd Edition

For a programming text–and one concerned with low-level instructions and data structures, at that–this book is remarkably rich in prose. You’ll typically want to read this book straight through, more or less skipping the code samples, before sketching out your plan for the driver you need to write. Then, go back and pay closer attention to the sections on specific details you need to implement, like custom task queues. For coding-time details about specific system calls and programming techniques, count on the index to point you to the right passages. –David Wall

Topics covered: Techniques for writing hardware device drivers that run under Linux kernels 2.0.x through 2.2.x. Sections show how to manage memory, time, interrupts, ports, and other details of the hardware-software interface.

Jonathan Corbet got his first look at the BSD Unix source back in 1981, when an instructor at the University of Colorado let him “fix” the paging algorithm. He has been digging around inside every system he could get his hands on ever since, working on drivers for VAX, Sun, Ardent, and x86 systems on the way. He got his first Linux system in 1993, and has never looked back. Mr. Corbet is the co-founder and executive editor of Linux Weekly News; he lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two children.

Alessandro Rubini installed Linux 0.99.14 soon after getting his degree as an electronic engineer. He then received a Ph.D in computer science at the University of Pavia despite his aversion toward modern technology. Alas, he still enjoys digging in technology and discovering the intelligence of people who created it: that’s why he now works in his apartment with three PCs, an Alpha, a SPARC, and an Apple2 — the last without Linux. But you might find him roaming around in the north of Italy on his bike, which doesn’t carry an electronic cyclometer.