移植Windows裝置驅動程式至Linux之可行性研究

Abstract

目前市面上最受歡迎的作業系統有二：一為Windows作業系統，另一則為Linux作業系統。雖然後者支援的應用程式眾多且為免費的作業系統，但礙於Linux平台能支援的驅動程式較少，使用者裝置無法在該平台得到和Windows平台相同的支援，也因此大大的降低了一般使用者在Linux平台的普及率。 此外，近年來嵌入式裝置大量的被開發應用，生活中常見的裝置包括數位相機、印表機、手機等各式各樣的產品不斷推出，這些裝置都需要硬體廠商開發驅動程式才能與電腦的作業系統互通，因此能快速開發穩定且支援多平台的驅動程式成為各家廠商相互競爭的關鍵一環。 開發Windows驅動程式，除了要了解裝置的硬體規格以及整個裝置的功能需求外也要了解整個Windows驅動程式模型，這些就已經花掉一個程式設計師相當多的時間來學習，如果再加上開發Linux平台的驅動程式可能要耗費更多的人力及時間，也影響產品上市的時間。其實要開發同一裝置在兩個平台的驅動程式，除了平台上驅動程式模型不同外，其它的硬體規格及功能需求應是一樣的。因此本研究以Windows 2000及Linux 2.6作業系統為主，來探討兩種平台移植的可行性，並使用Lex/Yacc來建置一個可擴充的模型讓不同的裝置及作業系統可以在此建立對應及轉換，以期能為兩個平台的驅動程式開發者節省開發時間。

Currently, the most popular operating system has two: one is Windows operating system, the other is Linux operating system. Although the latter is free and supported a lot of applications. The shortage of Linux driver to obstructs the user to get equally support like Windows. It also slashes Linux popularity in general user. Since a lot of embedded devices has been developed and applied in our life. We can see a various of device includes: digital camera、printer、mobile phone be produced. These devices need the hardware provider develop device drivers to communicate with operating system. Therefore, it’s a critical point for all providers who can rapidly develop stable and multiplatform supported device driver to compete with others. Besides, if you want to develop Windows device driver, you must highly understand the hardware of the device、all function require of the device and Windows Driver Model. The above things will take programmer a lot of times to learn and not to mention develop Linux device driver. All the factors will also influence the time to market. Actually, to develop the driver between Windows and Linux, the hardware and functionality will be the same except the device driver model. Therefore, we discuses the feasibility of porting driver from Windows 2000 to Linux 2.6 and using Lex/Yacc to build an extendable mapping and transfer mechanism in different device and platform. Hope it can save the time for driver developer’s to build drivers between two platforms.