Driver Portability

[dhanlouie]

I was just wondering, since most of the drivers written this time are compliant with microsoft driver architecture, is it possible to somehow port it to your operating system (i.e. automatically re-use code and modify implementation-specific functions to be compatible with your OS). This would somehow resolve my problem with drivers being

1.) Most of them are written specifically for windows
2.) Since no one release driver source code anymore (for free, that is), most of them are closed-coded
3.) They are hard to convert since at least developer manuals (e.g. schematics, protocols, etc.) are not available and I doubt that the manufacturer would release them .

Any thoughts on how to do this?

[gravaera]

Hi,

A similar question was asked very recently. Please search before creating new topics.
http://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23006

[bewing]

Please read this thread: http://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23006

-- and especially brendan's comment. I'm not sure I agree with him completely, but many people have had this idea before and none have ever come back to say that they had succeeded.

Heh. gravaera beat me to it, but I disagree with him -- it would not have been possible to find that thread with a search.

[dhanlouie]

Sorry for posting it (again, I think), but I was thinking about creating some method of converting the code to be compatible with my OS. What I mean by being compatible, is that it should comply to the standards of my OS. This could mean that the code itself will somehow be modified in such a way that, if necessary, it would, for instance, implement certain functions not available in my OS and act like a native driver.

[dhanlouie]

BTW, I just recently read the forum topic you refer to, specifically brendan's comment. Quite a scenario I would say . And thank you for your reply

[Dario]

BTW, I just recently read the forum topic you refer to, specifically brendan's comment. Quite a scenario I would say . And thank you for your reply

Ah yes....the great pastry massacre story...