Including GIO Device Drivers in the Kernel

Including GIO Device Drivers in the Kernel

Chapter 2, "Writing a Device Driver," provides general information on adding a driver to the kernel. This section describes specifics concerning GIO drivers. To add a new kernel-level GIO device driver, you must:

Create a system file
Create a master file
Create the boot file

For GIO drivers, use the INCLUDE directive, which unconditionally adds the module to the kernel. Because lboot can probe for GIO devices, lboot can conditionally include a GIO device driver into the kernel.

Note: Because IRIX kernels cannot, as a rule, be preempted, any driver that sits in a loop waiting for some condition to be satisfied may tie a processor up for as long as it wants. Real-time processes, such as audio, are very sensitive to such delays.

Creating a System File
Creating a Master File
Creating a Boot File
The GBD Example