On Tue, 2007-02-13 at 18:54 +0200, Tzahi Fadida wrote:
> Hi,
> As you might guess from a previous thread, i am trying to learn modules 
> development. I use kubuntu as my dist.
> My first goal is to be able to run the hello world module example in the 
> linux 
> device drivers 3rd edition book.
> Apparently in 2.6 you need to have the whole kernel compiled just to build 
> one 
> module, which is not a problem though i don't want to start spending days 
> tuning it up to work correctly with my system.

You don't.
You just need the skeleton kernel-devel package. (A cut down kernel
image that includes the kernel configuration, headers and kbuild
environment)

> 
> What should be my workspace so i can start learning:
> User mode linux? qemu? vmware? XEN :) ? 

In general, I use both VMWare server and an NFS-root-mounted machine.
Xen: At least in Fedora-land, it tends to be very sensitive to kernel
updates - a very frequent event.
QEMU: Too slow. (Even with now-GPL'ed kernel module.)
KVM: No hardware support. (Old[er] dual core Opterons @work/home)
UML: it has been a while since I used it - but even with the SKAS
host-patch, performance is less then staggering and it was -very-
sensitive to the base (read: un-patched) kernel versions.

NFS-root:
The NFS-root is also an interesting option. (If you can spare a second
machine/SBC/embedded board)
A. You don't risk the host machine. (I did crash vmware/Xen a couple of
times - risking the integrity of the host machine)
B. The guest machine is booting from a network FS - no matter how
painful your crash is (Read: doing memset with a negative size) you
won't damage the guest OS image.
C. Super fast boot. My NFS test machine (with a modified stripped-down
Slackware) boot in less then 15 seconds.

> 
> P.s.: naturally i am impatient to start coding yesterday :)

Yep... Debugging kernel OOPs is pure joy ;)

- Gilboa


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