A Driver for a Sun SPOT

Jonathan Micklos, Sun Campus Ambassador at Purdue University, gave a presentation for the OpenSolaris ACM SIG titled, "Driver Development for OpenSolaris." This presentation does not provide details of how to write a device driver for the Solaris OS - it does something more fun than that.

For instructions on how to develop a driver, see Device Driver Development Resources. What Jon's presentation does instead is give students a reason to want to develop a Solaris driver.

Jon's presentation first gives a brief overview of Solaris drivers and how they are different from Linux drivers. He then discusses a ramdisk driver and its important code features. A third of the way through the presentation, Jon is telling us about Sun SPOTs. Do not think he has abandoned the topic of deivce drivers. Keep up. Two thirds of the way through the presentation is the page, "Next Step Past RAM Disk Driver: Can We Make a Sun SPOT Based Accelerometer Driver?" (The answer is on the next page - no peeking.) Jon talks about making the SPOT driver reusable and extensible. He talks about writing a driver in a layered fashion where much of the driver is written in Java, and there is a base driver with specialization on top.

This sounds like a fun project to get started with Solaris drivers. Maybe we will get to see more of this at JavaOne.

Posted at 10:44PM Apr 10, 2008 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[2]

Boot into 32-bit kernel on 64-bit platform

Sometimes you need to boot into the 32-bit kernel on a 64-bit platform. Perhaps you have an application that is 32-bit only. Or perhaps you have developed a device driver for the Solaris OS. In general, Solaris device drivers must work both in 32-bit mode and in 64-bit mode.

To boot into the 32-bit kernel on a 64-bit platform, edit the GRUB menu. Either edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst and reboot, or reboot and enter e at the grub menu.

For Solaris 10, the lines in the menu.lst file look something like this:

title Solaris 10 11/06 s10x_u3wos_10 X86
root (hd0,2,a)
kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot
module /platform/i86pc/boot_archive

Change the kernel line to this:

kernel /platform/i86pc/kernel/unix

For Solaris Express (nevada, SXDE, SXCE, OpenSolaris), the lines in the menu.lst file look something like this:

title Solaris Express Community Edition snv_79 X86
kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix
module$ /platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/boot_archive

Change the kernel and module lines to this:

kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/unix
module$ /platform/i86pc/boot_archive

Save and reboot

To make this change persistent across reboots, become the root user and make this change using

eeprom boot-file="kernel/unix"

See also Forcing Solaris to load 32 bit kernel.

For more information on the GRUB menu, see GRUB's user interface on the GNU web site.

Posted at 08:14PM Jan 30, 2008 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[3]

Device Drivers Contest

Sun is sponsoring several contests, and part of the prize money is designated for device drivers for the Solaris/OpenSolaris OS.

Join the contest planning here:
OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards
Awards program email archives

What drivers does the Solaris OS need most? How much prize money should be awarded for different types of drivers? How should entries be judged? By whom?

Contest announcement

Community Innovation Awards Program web site

Posted at 12:29AM Dec 18, 2007 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[0]

Intel 4965 802.11agn, Marvell Libertas Wireless Drivers

New drivers are available on the Wireless Networking OpenSolaris community site.

1. Intel 4965 802.11agn chipsets (iwk). This driver supports WPA-PSK (both TKIP and AES). Both dladm and wificonfig are supported for configuration.

2. Marvell Libertas 8335/8310 802.11b/g chipsets (malo). This driver supports Marvell Libertas 8335/8310 chipset based Cardbus/PCI adapters, PCI ID "11ab,1faa" or "11ab,1fab".

For additional drivers that might not yet be integrated into a Solaris release, see Ethernet controller drivers and other drivers on the Device Drivers OpenSolaris community site.

Posted at 07:37PM Nov 19, 2007 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[0]

Solaris for x86 Device Support

The Solaris for x86 Device Support page has been updated!

Now you can more easily find which Solaris release supports the devices you are using.

For example, the latest Solaris Express Developer Edition (SXDE 9/07) contains more new network drivers, including new wireless drivers. To see which devices are supported:

1. Go to the Solaris for x86 Device Support page.

2. Near the bottom of the page, click the arrow to the right of the Select Release field, and click "Solaris Express Developer Release 9/07."

3. Click the arrow to the right of the Select Device Type field, and click "Network." The list of all network devices that have drivers in SXDE 9/07 appears below the selection fields.

See the information at the top of the Solaris for x86 Device Support page to find drivers that are not yet included in a Solaris release, or for instructions to drive your device with the driver for a similar device.

Posted at 05:10PM Sep 25, 2007 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[0]

More Wireless Drivers

The latest Solaris Express Developer Edition (SXDE 5/07) includes five new wireless drivers plus new WPA (WiFi Protected Access) personal mode support.

Wireless drivers included in SXDE 5/07 (driver download and installation not needed):

• ath - Atheros 52xx chipset
• ipw - Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 chipset New in SXDE 5/07
• iwi - Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG/2915ABG chipsets New in SXDE 5/07
• pcan - Cisco Aironet 340/350 New in SXDE 5/07
• pcwl - Agere 11b and PrismII 11b chipsets New in SXDE 5/07
• wpi - Intel 3945 chipset New in SXDE 5/07
• wpa support for nwam, dladm, net80211, and ath New in SXDE 5/07

See the Wireless Networking site on the Laptop community site on the OpenSolaris web site for a complete list of available wireless drivers for the Solaris OS, including ral and rtw. On that page, click the name of the driver for information about how to download, install, and configure the driver.

Supported WPA/IEEE 802.11i features:

• WPA-PSK ("WPA-Personal")
• Key management for CCMP, TKIP, WEP104, WEP40
• WPA and full IEEE 802.11i/RSN/WPA2

Access the WPA wireless network by using either dladm(1M) or nwam(1M). For more information about NWAM, see the Network Auto-Magic phase 0 project site on the OpenSolaris web site.

Posted at 08:30PM Jun 12, 2007 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[1]

Need a Wireless Driver?

The Solaris OS provides the ath(7D) driver for Atheros AR52xx 802.11b/g wireless NICs. Sun has several other wireless drivers under development that you can access today.

Go to http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/laptop/wireless/. Click the name of a driver to see what devices that driver supports and to get download, installation, and configuration information for that driver, including how to use ifconfig(1M) and wificonfig(1M) with that driver. The wificonfig utility is a command line wireless LAN configuration utility.

Driver	Devices Supported
cardbus	Nexus driver with support for 32-bit PC Cards
ipw	Intel Pro/Wireless 2100B Chipset
iwi	Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG/2915ABG Chipsets
pcwl	Agere/Prism-II 802.11b Chipsets
pcan	Cisco Aironet 340/350 Chipsets
ral	Ralink RT2500 802.11b/g Chipset
rtw	Realtek 8180 802.11b Chipset
wpa	WPA/WPA2/IEEE802.1X supplicant

Click the name of the driver on the OpenSolaris wireless site to see a list of specific devices supported by each driver. If your device is not listed, but a similar device is listed, try to use the driver for the similar device. See the instructions in “Assigning a New Device to an Existing Driver in the Solaris OS” for adding device support in the /etc/driver_aliases file.

Before you install one of these drivers, make sure you are running either Solaris 10 or Solaris Express. See additional requirements, notes, and FAQs when you click the name of the driver on the OpenSolaris wireless site.

Use the inetmenu graphical network configuration tool to “easily manage your wired, wireless, and dial-up network configurations.” The inetmenu tool is a GUI network configurator tool that plumbs and sets the right route and DNS and works with NIS.

See also the Network Auto-Magic OpenSolaris site. NWAM is “a project to simplify and automate network configuration on Solaris.”

Use the frkit tool to keep up-to-date with these drivers and to get additional goodies such as a battery meter for some laptops.

When the above drivers are integrated into the Solaris OS, of course you will not need to download, install, and configure them. So watch for release announcements and watch the Solaris for x86 Device Support page for new wireless support.

Posted at 03:23PM Mar 22, 2007 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[6]

Does the Solaris OS run on your x86 system?

Does the Solaris OS support your x86 PCI devices? Your answer may be only a click away with the new Sun Device Detection Tool.

Nothing to install - just click and run.

Sun Device Detection Tool detects devices in your x86 system and then displays a report that shows the major PCI components in the system and whether Solaris drivers exist for these devices. The report tells you whether the driver is built in to the Solaris OS or whether a third-party driver is available.

Posted at 06:51AM Oct 26, 2006 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[1]

Solaris for x86 PCI Device Support

The Solaris for x86 PCI Device Support table is a new resource on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) web site.

This table lists PCI devices that are supported in the Solaris 6/06 OS for x86 platforms. Also included are links to other Sun and third-party driver resources and a section on how to assign a new device to an existing driver.

Posted at 07:18AM Sep 21, 2006 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[0]

Hardware, drivers, and the Solaris OS

If you are running the Solaris OS on a system that is not built by Sun, please go to the HCL (the Solaris OS Hardware Compatibility List) and check whether the system is listed there. If your system is listed, are all the major components of your configuration listed? Click on Browse the Solaris HCL, and look for your system or component.

If hardware that you are using with the Solaris OS is not listed on the Solaris OS HCL, please add it to the list. At the top of any HCL Browse page, click Submit Component or Submit System. Or on the HCL home page, click Submit a System to the Solaris HCL or Submit a Component to the Solaris HCL. Answer "No" to the question "Test Suite Run?" and your system or component will be listed on the HCL as Reported to Work.

To get more attention from other HCL users (for example, if you want them to buy your hardware), certify your hardware as compatible with the Solaris OS by testing your hardware with the HCTS (the Hardware Certification Test Suite). After you have completed HCTS testing, answer "Yes" to the question "Test Suite Run?" on the HCL submission form, and your system or component will be listed on the HCL as Test Suite Certified.

The HCL is, of course, dependent on device drivers. To add hardware to the HCL or to use hardware listed on the HCL, you need to make sure the required drivers are available in the Solaris OS, or you need to find a third-party driver, or you need to modify or create your own driver and make it available.

If you want to use a component with your Solaris system but you do not have a driver for that component, click on Sun and Third-Party HCL Resources on the bottom of the HCL home page. This resources page contains links to several sites where you can get third-party drivers. If you do not find exactly what you need there, try to get the source for something close, and consult the Writing Device Drivers manual (the WDD) and the Device Driver Tutorial to try to modify the driver to make it work for you. Then please tell me how I can make the tutorial more helpful to you.

Speaking of driver source, watch for more source to appear on opensolaris.org.

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Posted at 06:36PM Jun 04, 2005 by alta in Device Support  |  Comments[0]