SolidusCode Blog

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Okay so I have posted a number of Linux kernel programming videos over at my YouTube channe , however I find that I need a place to post a sample code and the make file to build a module. So here it is. The Makefile obj-m := solidusmodule.o KERNEL_DIR = /lib/modules/3.2.0-25-generic/build PWD := $(shell pwd) all: $(MAKE) -C $(KERNEL_DIR) SUBDIRS=$(PWD) modules clean: rm -rf *.o *.ko *.mod.* *.symvers *.order *~ #include #include #include // file_operations structure- which of course allows use to open/close,read/write to device #include //this is a char driver; makes cdev available #include //used to access semaphores; sychronizatoin behaviors #include //copy_to_user;copy_from_user //(1) Create a structure for our fake device struct fake_device { char data[100]; struct semaphore sem; } virtual_device; //(2) To later register our device we need a cdev object and some other variables struct cdev *mcdev; //m stands 'my' int major_number;...

The Linux kernel is designed as a mixture of a monolithic binary image and a micro-kernel.  This combination allows for the best of both worlds.  On the monolithic side, all the code for the kernel to work with the user and hardware is already installed and ready for fast access, but the downside is that to add more functionality you need to rebuild the entire kernel.   In a different manner, a micro-kernel is composed of small pieces  of code that can be meshed today and more pieces can be added or removed as needed.  However, the downside to micro-kernel is a slower performance. Adding a module to the Kernel Linux is organized as both monolithic, one huge binary, and micro-kernel, as you can add more functionality to it.  The process of adding more functionality to the kernel can be illustrated by the crude image to the left. The process begins by using the command insmod with the name of the kernel module you want (which usually ends with ex...

There is not much difficulty when it comes to addition and subtraction in assembly programming. Simply, additon and substraction breaks down to the following: add eax , ecx ; eax = eax + ecx, result in eax add eax , DWORD [ ebp - 4 ] ; eax = eax + localVar1, result in eax add DWORD [ ebp - 4 ] , DWORD [ ebp -4 ] ; illegal, with all instruction both operands can never be memory add DWORD [ ebp - 4 ] , eax ; [ebp-4] = [ebp-4] + eax sub eax , ecx ; eax = eax - ecx, result in eax sub eax , DWORD [ ebp - 4 ] ; eax = eax - localVar1, result in eax sub DWORD [ ebp - 4 ] , DWORD [ ebp -4 ] ; illegal, with all instruction both operands can never be memory sub DWORD [ ebp - 4 ] , eax ; [ebp-4] = [ebp-4] - eax A simple program to display the message about an arithetic operation like "Math: 8 + 4 = ?" can be achived b...

Whenever you start programming, there is usually the first program that prints the phrase "Hello world" to the screen.  Well, let us keep that tradition and write an entire assembly program that print that message to the screen. ;Our Assembly Program file SECTION .data SECTION .bss SECTION .text The preceding is the standard file format of an assembly program using the Netwide assembler, or NASM. To write something to the screen, we first need to store the value of what we want to render to the screen by declaring variables. ;Our Assembly Program file SECTION .data ourHelloMsg: db "Hello world, we are in assembly", 10, 0 ;our simple message SECTION .bss SECTION .text Next, we want to use some real world practical assembly coding to print this message to the screen.  We could simple using the Linux int80h instruction to tell the operating system to print this message (if you aren't sure what I mean by this, do not worry), however we will use the printf...