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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Message-ID: <windows/programming/vxd_1083675484@rtfm.mit.edu> Supersedes: <windows/programming/vxd_1082292761@rtfm.mit.edu> Expires: 2 Jun 2004 12:58:04 GMT X-Last-Updated: 1997/08/06 Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) From: Berlin@vireo.com Organization: Vireo Software, Inc. Followup-To: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Summary: This posting contains Frequently Asked Questions (with answers) for the comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd newsgroup. This newsgroup is for people writing device drivers (VxDs) for Microsoft Windows 3.x and Windows 95. Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Date: 04 May 2004 12:59:16 GMT Lines: 958 NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu X-Trace: 1083675556 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 570 18.181.0.29 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd:32742 comp.answers:57058 news.answers:270863 Archive-name: windows/programming/vxd Posting-Frequency: bimonthly Last-modified: Aug 6, 1997 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd Editor: Stephen Lewin-Berlin (berlin@vireo.com). This document is copyright =A9 1995-1997 by Stephen Lewin-Berlin. This document, like most FAQ documents, is a work in progress. If you have comments, additional questions, or additional answers, please forward them= to the editor. If you write a good Questions and Answer, it will almost= certainly be included. The FAQ is distributed to the newsgroup every few weeks, but the text is typically updated every few months. If you are reading this off-line, I encourage you to check for an updated copy. The most recent copy can be= found on many newsgroup archive sites, and at= ftp://ftp.vireo.com/biz/vireo/vxdfaq.txt. There is no permanent archive of the newsgroup. Recent articles may be= located at http://www.dejanews.com. Contributors: Raymond Chen, Lee Fisher, Michael Geary, Chris Marriott, Raymond Chen, Dan Norton, Don Matthews, Karen Hazzah, Stephen Lewin-Berlin, and others. Questions Help, I need a driver for ... What are the differences between device drivers for Windows 3.1, Windows= 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows NT? What is Windows Driver Model (WDM)? What is a VxD? Can I use Windows as a real-time operating system? How do I access physical memory at (e.g. D000:0000) from a Windows 3.1 application? What are the differences between embedded, installable, and conventional device drivers? I need to write a Windows device driver. Should it be a DLL or a VxD? How do I call an application from a VxD? How do I handle interrupts in my VxD? How do I access physical memory in my VxD? How do I access memory from my application or DLL in my VxD? How do I allocate memory from a Win16 application that can be accessed by a VxD at interrupt time? How do I share memory between a Win32 application and a VxD? Give me an overview of Plug and Play How do I initiate DMA from a VxD? Do I need a Device ID for my VxD? Can I write device drivers in C/C++, or must I use assembly language? Why do I get linker warnings when I build my VxD? Why can=92t I use MSVC 4.1 to build a VxD? What commercial products are available to help develop VxDs? How do I find someone to write a driver for me? What books and magazines are available? What on-line resources are available? Are there classes in device driver development available? Statement of interest =20 Answers Help, I need a driver for ... I'm afraid you've asked on the wrong group. This is a newsgroup for discussions of device driver programming, not for requesting drivers= for particular devices. I'm sure you'll get help if you ask on the correct newsgroup, which is "comp.os.ms-windows.setup". What are the differences between device drivers for Windows 3.1, Windows= 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows NT? Windows 3.x and Windows 95 share a common device driver model. Windows= NT depends an a completely new, and completely incompatible driver model. Let's discuss Windows 3.x and Windows 95 first, then a brief word about Windows NT, and finally some discussion about compatibility between NT= and Windows 3.x/95. =20 There are really two kinds of device drivers for Windows 3.x/95. = Virtual Device Drivers (VxDs) run as part of the privileged (ring-0) operating system. VxDs can be thought of as a DLL for the operating system. = Running at ring 0, VxDs have complete access to the physical hardware, and can access data in the address space of any DOS, Windows, or Protected Mode application. Under Windows 3.x, VxDs are typically given a .386 file extension, and are loaded when Windows starts. Under Windows 95, VxDs= are given the .VXD file extension, and may be loaded at startup time, or dynamically loaded later. =20 Windows 95 uses the same basic architecture for VxDs as Windows 3.x. = Thus, drivers written for Windows 3.x can be loaded on a Windows 95 system= and should generally work fine. However, Windows 95 adds hundreds of new services for VxDs, and extends the VxD architecture to allow full= dynamic loading, pageable code and data, access to the system registry,= interfaces to Win32 applications, and many other features. VxDs written for= Windows 95 cannot be loaded on a Windows 3.x system. =20 In addition to VxDs, Windows 3.x/95 supports non-privileged (ring-3) Communication and Printer drivers. These are typically given .DRV file extensions. =20 Windows NT uses a new driver architecture, called "Kernel Mode= Drivers". Refer to the Windows NT DDK for detailed information. VxDs are not compatible with Windows NT. =20 In order to provide compatibility between Windows NT and Windows= 95/3.x, Microsoft provides "Miniport Drivers" for certain kinds of devices. Miniports allow driver developers to write a single driver using a pre- defined interface that is provided on both Windows NT and Windows= 95/3.x. Microsoft provides Miniport drivers for SCSI, Printer, and Display= devices. What is Windows Driver Model (WDM)? WDM, or Win32 Driver Model, was announced with much fanfare at the= Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in March, 1996. WDM is a= standard API for device driver development under Windows that will be supported across Windows 98 and Windows NT platforms. WDM will be based on the Windows NT driver model, with additions to support Plug and Play.= Although the definition has not been released, Microsoft has said that a future release of Windows 95 will support a subset of the Windows NT device= driver services and architecture. =20 Microsoft will initially support new buses (such as USB and P1394) with= WDM =93class drivers=94. Support for sound and input devices is also= planned =93sooner rather than later.=94 No specific commitment has been made= regarding other classes of devices. =20 It appears that VxDs will continue to be required for many classes of drivers (for example, file system drivers for Windows 98) for the indefinite future. What is a VxD? "VxD" stands for Virtual "something" Device, where 'x' stands for "something". Microsoft often names drivers according to this= convention, thus "VKD" is the Virtual Keyboard Device, and "VPICD" is the Virtual Programmable Interrupt Device. VxDs are loaded into the protected= (ring-0) operating system address space, and have full access to the system hardware. VxDs can modify page tables directly, install true hardware interrupt handlers, and generally wreak unrestricted havoc on the= system. Of course, just because you *can* doesn=92t suggest that you *should*. =20 VxDs can be used to virtualize physical hardware by intercepting application requests to use the hardware and arbitrating between= requests from different applications. In the more extreme case, VxDs can provide= a "virtual" device that is not actually present at all, by emulating the behavior of a hardware device. VxDs, by virtue of their privileged= access to the system, can also be used to implement software monitors,= debuggers, and to modify the behavior of other software on the system. =20 VxDs under Windows 95 are also used to implement many other components= of the operating system, including the protected mode file system (IOS and IFS), the Virtual Communication Architecture (VCOMM), plug and play (Configuration Manager, etc.), and network transport and protocol= drivers (NDIS). Can I use Windows as a real-time operating system? Can you say =93semi-real-time?=94 Microsoft Windows is not designed as= a real time operating system. In other words, there are no guarantees of real= time performance. Let me repeat that. There are NO GUARANTEES for real time latency under any version of Microsoft Windows. If your application requires absolutely guaranteed real-time response, otherwise a plane= will crash, a nuclear reactor will melt down, or a patient may die, then DO= NOT use Windows as a platform. On the other hand, if you can design you application (hardware/software) to accommodate some delays, you will= find that in most cases, Windows can provide excellent average latencies. =20 For example, experiments run on a 486/66 system with no other programs running suggest that a VxD can handle over 10,000 interrupts per second without losing any of them. However, as soon as other software is= loaded, interrupts begin to be dropped. =20 Windows is an =93open system=94 in the sense that applications and= drivers can disable interrupts at will. If one device driver disables interrupts= for a long period of time, no interrupt servicing will be performed. While= new drivers tend to keep interrupts disabled for very short periods, older drivers and applications sometimes poll hardware devices and keep interrupts disabled for unpredictable amounts of time. =20 Of course, you can write a driver that disables interrupts and polls= YOUR hardware. The mouse and keyboard will not respond, and other device= driver developers will grumble and curse if your driver happens to running on= a system where THEY want to do real-time-like operations. However, this= may be an acceptable alternative for in-house projects, or on well= controlled systems. =20 The only real answer is to test your driver with a wide variety of= software and hardware installed and gather empirical evidence. If you have the luxury to control the design of the hardware, build in buffering to accommodate worst-case latency situations. How do I access physical memory at (e.g. D000:0000) from a Windows 3.1 application? This is very easy to do. Here is a sample program that references the= VGA display buffer at A000:0000. You can use the same technique, except= use _D000h instead of _A000h. KERNEL defines a whole set of these= selectors for you covering the A000 through F000 range. #define STRICT #include "windows.h" =20 typedef WORD SELECTOR; =20 // __A000h is an absolute value; by declaring it as a NEAR variable // in our data segment we can take its "address" and get the // 16-bit absolute value. =20 extern BYTE NEAR CDECL _A000h; // use _A000H for Borland= compilers =20 SELECTOR selVGA =3D (SELECTOR)&_A000h; =20 int PASCAL WinMain (HINSTANCE hinst, HINSTANCE hinstPrev, LPSTR lpszCmdLine, int cmdShow ) { WORD FAR * lpVGA =3D MAKELP( selVGA, 0 ); =20 // Should put garbage pixels on top left of screen lpVGA[0] =3D 0x1234; lpVGA[1] =3D 0x5678; =20 return 0; } =20 What are the differences between embedded, installable, and conventional= device drivers? All of these terms can be used to describe 16-bit protected-mode DLLs. =20 > An embedded device driver is a DLL that basically acts as an= extension of a particular Windows application. It usually contains an= interrupt handler, and it exports any set of services the author might= choose to implement. =20 > An installable device driver must conform to more rigid= guidelines. This type of driver can be opened, closed, enabled, disabled, etc.= by other applications or DLLs. It contains a DriverProc, which is= like the WindowProc in a Windows application. The DriverProc responds= to a standard set of messages sent by Windows and to custom messages= sent by applications. This is the type of driver that can be installed using the Control Panel applet. =20 > A conventional device driver (also sometimes called a "standard" device driver) interacts with a hardware device supported by the Windows API. For example, the display, keyboard, and printer are considered to be "standard" devices. These drivers are sometimes given a file extension of .DRV, and are usually installable= drivers. They work with certain pre-defined data structures and provide= certain pre-defined services. I need to write a Windows device driver. Should it be a DLL or a VxD? This is the kind of question whose answer really depends on your application and your objectives. In general, a VxD is more difficult= to develop, but yields higher performance when processing interrupts and accessing I/O ports. A VxD can also do things that aren't otherwise possible with a DLL. =20 The first step is to determine what it is that your driver must do. If= it must support a hardware device, then which of the following system resources are required by your hardware? =20 a.) I/O ports b.) IRQ lines c.) Memory ranges d.) DMA channels =20 If I/O ports are involved, then be aware that there are performance= issues related to accessing I/O ports from ring 3, as you would in a DLL, as compared to accessing them from ring 0 in a VxD. There is overhead associated with accessing I/O ports from ring 3, perhaps as much as= 100% or more (i.e. ring 3 accesses take twice as much time as ring 0 accesses).= If the port is trapped by another driver, then the overhead to access the= port will be drastically greater. =20 If IRQ lines are involved, then be aware that there is significantly= more interrupt latency associated with an ISR running in ring 3 than in a= VxD. =20 Access to physical memory can be accomplished with DPMI services in a= DLL, or VMM services in a VxD. =20 Access to DMA channels from application level should go through VDS (Virtual DMA Services). =20 If you need to make your hardware appear to be shared by Windows applications and DOS applications running in separate DOS boxes, then= you need to "virtualize" your hardware with a VxD. You also need to "virtualize" your hardware if you need to mediate access, or resolve contention for your device. =20 Note also that VxDs are not supported for Windows NT or OS/2, as those operating systems use a different form of device driver. DLLs should= work correctly across the platforms. =20 How do I call an application from a VxD? There are several possibilities, depending on what kind of application= you are calling, and whether the driver is running under Windows 3.x or= Windows 95. =20 Here is a brief outline of some of the options. =20 Windows 3.x Use Nested Execution services to call PostMessage to send a= message to a Windows application. Use Nested Execution services to simulate a call or interrupt into= a V86 or Protected Mode context. Windows 95 Use Nested Execution services to call PostMessage to send a= message to a Windows application. Use Nested Execution services to simulate a call or interrupt into= a V86 or Protected Mode context. Use Shell_Post_Message to post a message to a Windows application. Use shell services such as Shell_Call_At_Appy_Time or Shell_Post_Message. Use Vwin32_QueueUserAPC to initiate a User Asynchronous Procedure Call. How do I handle interrupts in my VxD? =20 Use the services provided by the Virtual PIC Device (VPICD) to install= an ISR for your hardware device. This involves creating a data structure= in the locked data segment of your VxD of type VPICD_IRQ_Descriptor. In= it, you specify the IRQ number and the address of your ISR, among other= things. You then register your ISR by calling VPICD_Virtualize_IRQ. This= returns an IRQ Handle, which you should save for future reference. =20 Later, when an interrupt occurs, your ISR will be entered with minimal latency. The ISR must be in a locked code segment. The IRQ Handle= that uniquely identifies this interrupt will be in EAX upon entry. You= should call VPICD_Phys_EOI at the end of your ISR. Just before returning from your ISR, clear the carry flag if you successfully processed the= interrupt. If the IRQ is sharable, you can pass the IRQ on to the next handler in= the chain by setting the carry flag. Return from the ISR with a RET instruction, not IRET. =20 Upon entry to the VID_Hw_Int_Proc (your ISR), interrupts are masked at= the PIC for that particular interrupt, and an EOI has already been sent to= the PIC for that same interrupt. The call to VPICD_Phys_EOI at the end of= the ISR doesn't actually send an EOI to the physical PIC, as the name= implies, but rather simply unmasks the interrupt at the PIC. The EOI was= actually sent to the PIC before entering VID_Hw_Int_Proc. The name of the VPICD_Phys_EOI service is misleading. =20 Check out the useful services provided by VPICD. How do I access physical memory in my VxD? =20 You should first convert the physical address to a linear address with= the _MapPhysToLinear service. If you need to pass the address to an application, you can convert the linear address to either a= protected-mode address in (selector):(offset) form or a V86-mode address in (segment):(offset) form with the Map_Lin_To_VM_Addr service. How do I access memory from my application or DLL in my VxD? =20 You should convert the protected-mode address to a linear address with= the Map_Flat service. Do not depend on the address remaining valid indefinitely unless you have locked the linear address with the= GlobalFix API. How do I allocate memory from a Win16 application that can be accessed by a= VxD at interrupt time? In order to allocate memory that is safe to access froma VxD at= interrupt time, you must perform several steps. GlobalAlloc() Allocate a block of memory. GlobalLock() Keep the segment in memory. GlobalFix() Prevent the segment from moving in linear memory. GlobalPageLock() Prevent the memory from being swapped to disk. Then, pass the segment:offset address of the memory block to the VxD.= The VxD can use the MapFlat service to translate the memory address to a= linear address for use by the ISR. =20 How do I share memory between a Win32 application and a VxD? Under Windows 95, VxDs and Win32 applications share the same linear= address space. Therefore, you can allocate memory in a VxD and pass the linear address to a Win32 application directly. The address space of an application includes both private and shared regions. If a VxD needs to access memory allocated in a Win32 application, the memory must be in a shared (global) region, or the VxD must be running in thread context= from which the memory was originally allocated. Use the= Schedule_Thread_Event service to change contexts if necessary. =20 If a VxD needs to access application memory at interrupt time, the= memory must be page locked. There are no Win32 services for page locking= memory, but the VxD may lock the pages. Use the VMM service _LinPageLock,= setting the last parameter (flags) to PAGEMAPGLOBAL. The service returns an= address for the specified page that may is usable from any memory context. Use _LinPageUnLock to unlock the memory. Give me an overview of Plug and Play =20 If you write a VxD for a device in Win95, you must provide a Device Information file (.INF) that tells Win95 how to install the VxD and = how to configure the device. Information about INF files can be found in= the Win95 DDK. =20 If you're writing a Win95 VxD for a PCI, PCMCIA or PNPISA device, you should also add Plug and Play support to your VxD. All that means is= that your VxD uses Configuration Manager (a VxD) services to find out which system resources (I/O addr, IRQ, etc.) have been assigned to the= device, as opposed to obtaining this info from an INI file or hardcoding it. =20 To add this required Plug and Play functionality, your VxD must handle= the PNP_New_DevNode message sent by the Config Mgr. In response to this message, you should register yourself as the device driver by calling CM_RegisterDeviceDriver. When calling this function, you pass the CM a callback function. The CM will call you back later when your resources= have been assigned, passing you a function code. When your callback = function is called with the CONFIG_START function code, call the function CM_GetAllocLogConf to find out which resources have been assigned to= your device. This call fills in a CM_CONFIG structure, which has a field for I/O address, IRQ, etc. =20 Some types of VxDs, including SCSI MiniPort Drivers, Network Drivers= and VCOMM Port Drivers, may need to use a different method of obtaining= config info. These types are different because in each case another VxD is= acting as Device Loader, and it's the Device Loader that actually interacts= with the CM, not the driver VxD. These drivers may need to use configuration services provided by the Device Loader (IOS, Ndis wrapper or VCOMM) instead of interacting with the CM directly. =20 The Configuration Manager will never send your VxD a PNP_New_DevNode message until the appropriate registry entries are made. The best way= to get the registry entries is not by hand, but with an INF file. Win95= will prompt you for an INF file the first time it sees your device. For PCI,PCMCIA and ISAPNP devices, this should automatically happen the= first time you physically install the device. For other devices, you may= have to run the Add New Hardware wizard from the Device Manager application.= Win95 will use the INF file you supply to make registry entries. INF files= are documented in the Win95 DDK. How do I initiate DMA from a VxD? =20 The following information applies to both Windows 3.x and Windows 95, unless otherwise noted. It assumes some knowledge of DMA operations= under DOS, describing only differences under Windows. =20 A Windows driver for a DMA device can be implemented as a Ring 3 driver= DLL or as a VxD. A VxD will offer much better performance, because Ring 3= DMA generally results in double buffering. =20 To set up a DMA transfer in a DLL, program the the system DMA= controller registers using normal I/O instructions, setting up the DMA mode,= count, address, etc. Use GlobalDosAlloc to allocate the DMA buffer. All other methods result in a linear address above 2 GB, larger than the 24-bit controller can address. GlobalDosAlloc returns a segment value and a selector value. Uses the segment value as you would under DOS to= calculate a physical address -- shift left by 4. Program this value into the controller's base address register, just like under DOS. =20 So it's easy to do DMA from a DLL. But there's a cost to performance.= The VDMAD intercepts all I/O reads and writes to the DMA controller,= writing the data to its own virtual registers but not to the actual registers. When the DLL unmasks the controller, the VDMAD gets ready to start the= DMA operation. VDMAD looks at the value written to the base address= register. Treating this as a linear address, it determines if the pages are physically contiguous. Only random chance would make them contiguous, because a Windows app or DLL cannot specify contiguous when= allocating. If they're not (and they won't be), the VDMAD writes into the actual controller register the physical address of another buffer instead --= one allocated as contigous by VDMAD. If transfer is from memory, VDMAD= copies data from original buffer to its buffer. VDMAD programs the controller with the remaining virtual register values, and the transfer begins.= If the transfer is to memory, VDMAD copies from its buffer to the= original buffer when the transfer is complete. All this is transparent to DOS= or Windows application that performed the transfer. But the buffer copy required to insure DMA buffer physical contiguity may slow down the transfer considerably. =20 To do DMA in a VxD, allocate the DMA buffer with PageAllocate, using= the PageUseAlign and PageContig flag bits, and pType of PG_VM. Under= Win3.x, these flags are valid only during initialization. Under Win95, the= flags are valid at any time. Do not program the system DMA controller= directly, use VDMAD services. Call VDMAD_Virtualize_Channel once before the= first transfer to reserve the channel. For every transfer, call VDMAD_Lock_DMA_Region to page-lock the buffer and get it's physical address; VDMAD_Set_Region_Info to program the controller with physical address; VDMAD_Set_Phys_State to program the controller's mode; and= last VDMAD_Phys_Unmask_Channel to unmask the channel. The VDMAD Lock and= Unlock services cannot be called in a ISR, schedule an event handler instead= if necessary. Do I need a Device ID for my VxD? =20 Most developers will not need a device ID. To communicate with a VxD= from a Win32 application, use the Device IOCTL call. To obtain the VxD entry= point from a 16-bit application running under Windows 95 given the device= name (1- 8 characters) without needing an ID number, do this: =20 AX =3D 1684h (Get VxD entry point) BX =3D 0000h (UNDEFINED_DEVICE_ID) ES:DI -> 8-character space-padded case-sensitive buffer with the= VxD name. Int 2Fh =20 This will return ES:DI =3D callback address if successful, or 0 on= error. For example, if your device is called "MYDEV", you could write =20 MyDevName db 'MYDEV ' ; 8 characters space-padded case-sensitive mov ax, 1684h mov bx, 0 push ds pop es mov di, offset MyDevName int 2fh mov ax, es or ax, di jz error mov word ptr EntryPoint[0], di mov word ptr EntryPoint[2], es =20 If your driver provides services to be called by other VxDs, you may= want a unique device ID. Send email to vxdid@microsoft.com and an application= for a device ID will be automatically sent to you. Can I write device drivers in C/C++, or must I use assembly language? =20 VxDs are 32-bit programs. You may use a 32-bit C/C++ compiler, but you must be careful about segmentation, calling conventions, and run time library routines that require initialization. Many of the interfaces provided by the Virtual Machine Manager have register-based calling conventions. =20 Vireo Software sells a toolkit that allows you to use C or C++ to write VxDs. See below. Why do I get linker warnings when I build my VxD? The Microsoft linker will generate many warnings when linking VxDs. = The warning messages refer to =93mismatched segment attributes=94. These= errors are normal (sorry about that) and can be ignored. The most recent= linker includes a /IGNORE switch that you can use to at least suppress the messages. Why can=92t I use MSVC 4.1 to build a VxD? There is a bug in Microsoft Visual C/C++ version 4.1 that prevents two= key macros (VxDjmp and VxDCall) from working correctly. The problem does= not appear in MSVC 4.0 or 4.2. A fix is available from Vireo Software. What commercial products are available to help develop VxDs? =20 Microsoft Developer Network (Microsoft) Soft-ICE (Nu-Mega Technologies) VtoolsD (Vireo Software) VxBuild (Tetradyne) =20 Microsoft Developer Network Summary: The Microsoft Developer Network is available in= several versions. The basic version consists of a CD containing product documentation and publications. Options include subscriptions for quarterly updates, and SDK/DDK packages.= In order to receive the DDK, you must (1) subscribe to the "professional" edition or higher, and (2) request the DDK specifically. Although there is no additional charge for= the DDK, it is only shipped to customers who specifically= request it. Contact: Microsoft Developer Network PO Box 10296, Des Moines, IA 50336 (800) 759-5474 or (206) 936-8661 =20 SoftICE/W Summary: Soft-ICE/W is a full-screen character-mode debugger= that can be used to debug VxDs and applications. Soft-ICE/W can debug VxDs at the instruction level, or display ASM, C, or= C++ source code. Contact: NuMega Technologies, Inc. PO Box 7780, Nashua, NH 03060 (603) 889-2386 fax: (603) 889-1135 mailto:info@numega.com http://www.numega.com =20 VtoolsD for Windows 95 Summary: VtoolsD for Windows 95 allows developers to build VxDs for Windows 95, including registry, plug and play, file= system drivers, Win32 application interfaces, and much more.= VtoolsD for Windows 95 includes Microsoft=92s WDEB386 debugger and= the Windows 95 debug kernel along with over 40 sample VxDs. Contact: Vireo Software 21 Half Moon Hill, Acton, MA 01720 (508) 264-9200 fax: (508) 264-9205 mailto:info@vireo.com http://www.vireo.com =20 VtoolsD for Windows 3.1 Summary: VtoolsD is a toolkit that allows developers to build= VxDs in C or C++ using the Microsoft 32-bit C/C++ compiler.= VtoolsD includes a visual-programming VxD code generator, ANSI C= run- time libraries, VMM/VxD service libraries, examples, and a= VxD Class Library. Compatible with Microsoft and Borland C/C++ compilers. Contact: Vireo Software 21 Half Moon Hill, Acton, MA 01720 (508) 264-9200 fax: (508) 264-9205 mailto:info@vireo.com http://www.vireo.com =20 VxBuild Summary: Wrappers to build VxDs in C. Contact: Tetradyne Software Inc. 2542 S. Bascom Ave, Suite #206 Campbell, CA 95008 (408) 377-6367 fax: (408) 377-6258 sales@tetradyne.com http://www.tetradyne.com How do I find someone to write a driver for me? Vireo Software maintains a list of consultants and contract programmers= who specialize in device driver software. Follow links from Vireo=92s home= page at http://www.vireo.com/consult.htm What books and magazines are available? Magazines There are no magazines devoted strictly to device driver= programming. The following publications have published articles about device= driver technology at one time or another. Someday, I may have time to= collect references to specific articles. =20 Microsoft Systems Journal Dr. Dobb=92s Journal Windows Developer=92s Journal Windows Tech Journal =20 =20 Books specifically about device drivers: =20 Title: Inside the Windows 95 File System Author: Stan Mitchell Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates ISBN: 1-56592-200-X Price: $32.95 =20 Title: Systems Programming for Windows 95 Author: Walter Oney Publisher: Microsoft Press ISBN: 1-55615-949-8 Price: $39.95 =20 Title: Writing Windows VxDs and Device Drivers (2nd edition) Author: Karen Hazzah Publisher: R&D Publications ISBN: 0-87930-438-3 Price: $49.95 =20 Title: Writing Windows Virtual Device Drivers Author: David Thielen and Bryan Woodruff Publisher: Addison Wesley ISBN: 0-201-62706-X (may be replaced by:) ISBN: 0-201-48921-X Price: $39.95 =20 Title: Writing Windows Device Drivers Author: Daniel Norton Publisher: Addison Wesley ISBN: 0-201-57795-X Price: $29.95 =20 Other books useful to device driver developers: =20 Title: Undocumented DOS (2nd Edition) Author: Andrew Schulman et al Publisher: Addison-Wesley ISBN: 0-201-63287-X Price: $44.95 =20 Title: DOS Internals Author: Geoff Chappell Publisher: Addison-Wesley ISBN: 0-201-60835-9 Price: $39.95 =20 Title: Unauthorized Windows 95 Resource Kit Author: Andrew Schulman Publisher: IDG Books ISBN: 1-56884-305-4 (with disk) ISBN: 1-56884-169-8 (no disk) Price: $39.95 =20 =20 What on-line resources are available? =20 Internet news groups news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd news:microsoft.public.win32.programmers.kernel =20 World Wide Web sites http://www.vireo.com Vireo Software (VtoolsD) home page http://www.albany.net/~danorton/ddk Dan Norton=92s DDK resource page http://www.microsoft.com Microsoft home page http://www.ora.com/windows O=92Reilly Associates home page http://www.numega.com Nu-Mega Technologies (Soft-ICE) home page http://www.microsoft.com/windows/thirdparty/hardware Windows Hardware Technical Information for IHVs and OEMs http://www.teleport.com/~usb Universal Serial Bus Home Page http://www.tiac.net/users/waltoney DDK annotations =20 Mailing lists DDK-L ($15.00 fee) This list is for discussion of Microsoft Windows Driver Development, including VxDs, printer drivers, and Windows NT= kernel mode drivers. To join, send "subscribe DDK-L first_name= last_name" in the body of a message to LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM. The list is free for the first 30 days. After that, the fee is $15 annually. The up-to-the-minute archives are publicly available without charge at: http://www.albany.net/~danorton/ddk/ddk-l/index.shtml VCOMM (Free) This is for discussion of VCOMM port driver development. To= join, send a message to vcomm@cdsnet.net with the text "subscribe vcomm" in the body of the message. A VCOMM FAQ is also available. DDK (free) This list is for discussion of Microsoft Windows Driver Development, including VxDs, printer drivers, and Windows NT= kernel mode drivers. To join, send "SUBSCRIBE DDK" in the body of a message to Majordomo@cfn.ist.utl.pt =20 Internet FTP sites ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Developr/drg/developer-info/devinfo.zip This file contains a list of developer resources available= from Microsoft; it is not driver specific. ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Developr/MSDN ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Developr/DRG/MSDN-Info These directories contain additional information about= Microsoft Developer Network. ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/windows/win95.update/schulman.html = ftp://ftp.microsoft.com\developr\drg\winsock\ms-extensions\vxdtdi.zip Documents how to access the TCP/IP stack Are there classes in device driver development available? =20 Walter Oney Software Walter Oney offers training classes in VxD development. Walter Oney Software 4 Longfellow Place Boston, MA 02114 800.737.9876 fax: 617 227 5760 WaltOney@oneysoft.com =20 Statement of interest =20 The editor works for Vireo Software, Inc. and is one of the authors of= the VtoolsD VxD toolkit mentioned in this document. =20 -- Steve Lewin-Berlin Berlin@vireo.com Vireo Software "The Device Driver Tools Company" Stephen Lewin-Berlin mailto:berlin@vireo.com Vireo Software http://www.vireo.com "The Device Driver Tools Company"