http://hi.baidu.com/baldwin8/blog/item/10c3fd8e7c0002f6503d92df.html
https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-help/2009-August/000193.html
http://www.qtcn.org/bbs/simple/?t18619.html
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
vmware 网络配置实例二 windows xp host + linux guest
vmware 网络配置实例二 windows host + linux guest
（yunqing（2005-03-24）按：很多朋友问到ping不通host的情况，请检查一下host里的防火墙设置，多数的windows xp sp2下的防火墙都设置成不响应）
前言：前几天写了一个vmware的配置的一个案例，主要关于linux host+windows guest的情况（http://bbs.chinaunix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=367907& highlight=yunqing），适用于经常跑linux而把windows当成副业的朋友。发布以后反应不大，后来发现坛子里的朋友使 windows host 来跑linux guest的居多 ，且有很多帖子谈到网络问题，自己想没有那么难吧，就试了一把，把过程写下来希望对网络有问题的朋友有所帮助。
版权属yunqing所有，首发chinaunix.net，转贴引用请包含此行声明
正文：
本人使用的是vmware workstation 4.52，host机器运行的是windows Xp professional ，如果你还在使vmware workstation 4.0建议下载一个升级包，不过我想即使不做问题也不大。
1。安装 vmware workstation，很简单，一路ok过去，相信大部分朋友已经装好。
2。创建新的guest系统。选择类型。因为我以发生问题最多的redhat 9做试验，所以就选redhat linux，选custom，网络接口选hostonly（如果你已经安装好 了，用了nat或bridge也没有关系，在虚拟机的属性里改成hostonly就行了。）
3。创建后启动虚拟机，插入安装rh9的第一张盘。选择定制安装，我只保留了gonme, X， 和graphical internet,节省安装空间和时间。
4。安装过程很顺利，没有问题，完成后重新启动虚拟机，发现在更新fstab的时候挂了起来，估计是连接cdrom活软盘时候超时。kill掉虚拟机，更改设置，把光驱和软盘的autoconnect when power on清除掉。重启虚拟机，没有问题，进入最后设置，声卡，图形界面均没有问题。
5。按照要求在虚拟机里安装vmware-tool,对鼠标和图形进行更好地支持。
如果你在图形界面下，首先要切换到文本模式。
右键点击桌面，打开一个終端
在終端里：
su
#/sbin/telinit 3
图形界面消失，敲回车几下，在文本方式下登录。
在windows的vmware的窗口菜单中选vm->;install vmware tools
在虚拟机中：
su
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
cd /tmp
tar zxf /mnt/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl
回答并设置屏幕分辨率，除了分辨率需要选择外，直接回车就行了。
返回到默认的图形界面（运行级别5）
/sbin/telinit 5
6.登录虚拟机，打开一个終端：
/sbin/ifconfig
发现eth0没有起来。
不要惊慌。
－－－－－－－－－－－－－以下是网络设置－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
7。到windows XP 中，查看所有的网络连接，你应该发现除了原有的网卡之外，又多了Vmnet1和Vmnet8。如果你看了一下说明书应该知道，vmnet1是hostonly的接口，而Vmnet8是使用NAT的网络接口。在这里我们既不想用VMWARE自带的DHCP也不想用他的NAT所以我们知关心VMnet1
在进一步操作之前先说一下idea:
我们将使用hostonly这个网络接口连接虚拟机和主机，然后利用windows Xp/2000里面自带的internet连接共享（实际上是一个简单的路由NAT)来让虚拟机 通过原来的网卡进行外网的访问。
那么为什么不使用桥接的方式呢，我在前一篇文章（linux host + windows guest)里面已经有些讨论，请参考。不过最现实的原因是桥接需要一个不同于 原主机上的另外一个独立的IP地址，这对于有些情况（IP和MAC绑定，网管不同意），比较难办到。
OK， let's go
（1）查看你的连接外网的网卡的属性，选择“高级”标签，设置成允许共享，并设定允许的网络接口为VMNET1,如下图。
(2)再插看一下你的VMnet1 的属性，看一下TCP/IP协议的设置，你发现已经被自动设置为192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0，如下图。
（3）windows下的设置完成，转入到跑linux的虚拟机。将你的eth0的ip地址设置为静态的（如果安装时没有选静态的话）
（4）windows下的设置完成，转入到跑linux的虚拟机。将你的eth0的ip地址设置为静态的（如果安装时没有选静态的话）。
按红帽子图标－＞系统设置－＞网络（或其它你了解的方法）
ip： 192.168.0.2(或其它在此网段上的地址）
netmask: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.0.1
dns:输入你自己的DNS
保存设置。如果你还没有设置好主机名称：
cd /etc/sysconfig
vi network
编辑HOSTNAME
cd /etc
vi hosts
加入：
192.168.0.2 yourhostname
重新启动服务
su
/sbin/service network restart
(4)测试一下
网关： ping 192.168.0.1
dns: ping dnsserver
另请参阅：
vmware 配置实例一 linux host + windows guest + firewall
http://bbs.chinaunix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=367907&highlight=yunqing
vmware 网络设置三：理解虚拟网络的类型
http://bbs.chinaunix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=376768&highlight=yunqing
（yunqing（2005-03-24）按：很多朋友问到ping不通host的情况，请检查一下host里的防火墙设置，多数的windows xp sp2下的防火墙都设置成不响应）
前言：前几天写了一个vmware的配置的一个案例，主要关于linux host+windows guest的情况（http://bbs.chinaunix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=367907& highlight=yunqing），适用于经常跑linux而把windows当成副业的朋友。发布以后反应不大，后来发现坛子里的朋友使 windows host 来跑linux guest的居多 ，且有很多帖子谈到网络问题，自己想没有那么难吧，就试了一把，把过程写下来希望对网络有问题的朋友有所帮助。
版权属yunqing所有，首发chinaunix.net，转贴引用请包含此行声明
正文：
本人使用的是vmware workstation 4.52，host机器运行的是windows Xp professional ，如果你还在使vmware workstation 4.0建议下载一个升级包，不过我想即使不做问题也不大。
1。安装 vmware workstation，很简单，一路ok过去，相信大部分朋友已经装好。
2。创建新的guest系统。选择类型。因为我以发生问题最多的redhat 9做试验，所以就选redhat linux，选custom，网络接口选hostonly（如果你已经安装好 了，用了nat或bridge也没有关系，在虚拟机的属性里改成hostonly就行了。）
3。创建后启动虚拟机，插入安装rh9的第一张盘。选择定制安装，我只保留了gonme, X， 和graphical internet,节省安装空间和时间。
4。安装过程很顺利，没有问题，完成后重新启动虚拟机，发现在更新fstab的时候挂了起来，估计是连接cdrom活软盘时候超时。kill掉虚拟机，更改设置，把光驱和软盘的autoconnect when power on清除掉。重启虚拟机，没有问题，进入最后设置，声卡，图形界面均没有问题。
5。按照要求在虚拟机里安装vmware-tool,对鼠标和图形进行更好地支持。
如果你在图形界面下，首先要切换到文本模式。
右键点击桌面，打开一个終端
在終端里：
su
#/sbin/telinit 3
图形界面消失，敲回车几下，在文本方式下登录。
在windows的vmware的窗口菜单中选vm->;install vmware tools
在虚拟机中：
su
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
cd /tmp
tar zxf /mnt/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl
回答并设置屏幕分辨率，除了分辨率需要选择外，直接回车就行了。
返回到默认的图形界面（运行级别5）
/sbin/telinit 5
6.登录虚拟机，打开一个終端：
/sbin/ifconfig
发现eth0没有起来。
不要惊慌。
－－－－－－－－－－－－－以下是网络设置－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
7。到windows XP 中，查看所有的网络连接，你应该发现除了原有的网卡之外，又多了Vmnet1和Vmnet8。如果你看了一下说明书应该知道，vmnet1是hostonly的接口，而Vmnet8是使用NAT的网络接口。在这里我们既不想用VMWARE自带的DHCP也不想用他的NAT所以我们知关心VMnet1
在进一步操作之前先说一下idea:
我们将使用hostonly这个网络接口连接虚拟机和主机，然后利用windows Xp/2000里面自带的internet连接共享（实际上是一个简单的路由NAT)来让虚拟机 通过原来的网卡进行外网的访问。
那么为什么不使用桥接的方式呢，我在前一篇文章（linux host + windows guest)里面已经有些讨论，请参考。不过最现实的原因是桥接需要一个不同于 原主机上的另外一个独立的IP地址，这对于有些情况（IP和MAC绑定，网管不同意），比较难办到。
OK， let's go
（1）查看你的连接外网的网卡的属性，选择“高级”标签，设置成允许共享，并设定允许的网络接口为VMNET1,如下图。
(2)再插看一下你的VMnet1 的属性，看一下TCP/IP协议的设置，你发现已经被自动设置为192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0，如下图。
（3）windows下的设置完成，转入到跑linux的虚拟机。将你的eth0的ip地址设置为静态的（如果安装时没有选静态的话）
（4）windows下的设置完成，转入到跑linux的虚拟机。将你的eth0的ip地址设置为静态的（如果安装时没有选静态的话）。
按红帽子图标－＞系统设置－＞网络（或其它你了解的方法）
ip： 192.168.0.2(或其它在此网段上的地址）
netmask: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.0.1
dns:输入你自己的DNS
保存设置。如果你还没有设置好主机名称：
cd /etc/sysconfig
vi network
编辑HOSTNAME
cd /etc
vi hosts
加入：
192.168.0.2 yourhostname
重新启动服务
su
/sbin/service network restart
(4)测试一下
网关： ping 192.168.0.1
dns: ping dnsserver
另请参阅：
vmware 配置实例一 linux host + windows guest + firewall
http://bbs.chinaunix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=367907&highlight=yunqing
vmware 网络设置三：理解虚拟网络的类型
http://bbs.chinaunix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=376768&highlight=yunqing
Howto: Ubuntu Linux convert DHCP network configuration to static IP configuration
My friend wanted to know how to change or convert DHCP network configuration to static configuration. After initial installation, he wanted to change network settings. Further, his system is w/o GUI system aka X Windows. Here is quick way to accomplish the same:
Your main network configuration file is /etc/network/interfaces
Desired new sample settings:
=> Host IP address 192.168.1.100
=> Netmask: 255.255.255.0
=> Network ID: 192.168.1.0
=> Broadcast IP: 192.168.1.255
=> Gateway/Router IP: 192.168.1.254
=> DNS Server: 192.168.1.254
Open network configuration file
$ sudo vi /etc/network/interfacesOR$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
Find and remove dhcp entry:
iface eth0 inet dhcp
Append new network settings:
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.254
Save and close the file. Restart the network:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
Task: Define new DNS servers
Open /etc/resolv.conf file
$ sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf
You need to remove old DNS server assigned by DHCP server:
search myisp.com
nameserver 192.168.1.254
nameserver 202.54.1.20
nameserver 202.54.1.30
Save and close the file.
Task: Test DNS server
$ host cyberciti.biz
Network command line cheat sheet
You can also use commands to change settings. Please note that these settings are temporary and not the permanent. Use above method to make network changes permanent or GUI tool as described below.
Task: Display network interface information
$ ifconfig
Task: Take down network interface eth0 / take a network interface down
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 downOR $ sudo ifdown eth0
Task: Bring a network interface eth0 up
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 upOR$ sudo ifup eth0
Task: Change IP address and netmask from command line
Activate network interface eth0 with a new IP (192.168.1.50) / netmask:
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.50 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
Task: Display the routing table
$ /sbin/route OR$ /sbin/route -n
Output:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
localnet * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 ra0
172.16.114.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
172.16.236.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
default 192.168.1.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 ra0
Task: Add a new gateway
$ sudo route add default gw 172.16.236.0
Task: Display current active Internet connections (servers and established connection)
$ netstat -nat
Task: Display open ports
$ sudo netstat -tulpOR$ sudo netstat -tulpn
Task: Display network interfaces stats (RX/TX etc)
$ netstat -i
Task: Display output for active/established connections only
$ netstat -e
$ netstat -te
$ netstat -tue
Where,
* -t : TCP connections
* -u : UDP connections
* -e : Established
Task: Test network connectivity
Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts, routers, servers etc with ping command. This verifies connectivity exists between local host and remote network system:
$ ping router
$ ping 192.168.1.254
$ ping cyberciti.biz
See simple Linux system monitoring with ping command and scripts for more information.
Task: Use GUI (Graphical Configuration) network Tool
If you are new, use GUI configuration tool, type the following command at terminal:
$ network-admin &
Above command is Ubuntu's GUI for configuring network connections tool.
Final tip - Learn how find out more information about commands
A man page is your best friend when you wanted to learn more about particular command or syntax. For example, read detailed information about ifconfig and netstat command:
$ man ifconfig
$ man netstat
Just get a short help with all command options by appending --help option to each command:
$ netstat --help
Find out what command is used for particular task by searching the short descriptions and manual page names for the keyword:
$ man -k 'delete directory'
$ apropos -s 1 remove
Display short descriptions of a command:
$ whatis rm
$ whatis netstat
Linux offers an excellent collection of utilities, which can be use to finding the files and executables, remember you cannot memorize all the commands and files ;)
Your main network configuration file is /etc/network/interfaces
Desired new sample settings:
=> Host IP address 192.168.1.100
=> Netmask: 255.255.255.0
=> Network ID: 192.168.1.0
=> Broadcast IP: 192.168.1.255
=> Gateway/Router IP: 192.168.1.254
=> DNS Server: 192.168.1.254
Open network configuration file
$ sudo vi /etc/network/interfacesOR$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
Find and remove dhcp entry:
iface eth0 inet dhcp
Append new network settings:
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.254
Save and close the file. Restart the network:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
Task: Define new DNS servers
Open /etc/resolv.conf file
$ sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf
You need to remove old DNS server assigned by DHCP server:
search myisp.com
nameserver 192.168.1.254
nameserver 202.54.1.20
nameserver 202.54.1.30
Save and close the file.
Task: Test DNS server
$ host cyberciti.biz
Network command line cheat sheet
You can also use commands to change settings. Please note that these settings are temporary and not the permanent. Use above method to make network changes permanent or GUI tool as described below.
Task: Display network interface information
$ ifconfig
Task: Take down network interface eth0 / take a network interface down
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 downOR $ sudo ifdown eth0
Task: Bring a network interface eth0 up
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 upOR$ sudo ifup eth0
Task: Change IP address and netmask from command line
Activate network interface eth0 with a new IP (192.168.1.50) / netmask:
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.50 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
Task: Display the routing table
$ /sbin/route OR$ /sbin/route -n
Output:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
localnet * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 ra0
172.16.114.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
172.16.236.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
default 192.168.1.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 ra0
Task: Add a new gateway
$ sudo route add default gw 172.16.236.0
Task: Display current active Internet connections (servers and established connection)
$ netstat -nat
Task: Display open ports
$ sudo netstat -tulpOR$ sudo netstat -tulpn
Task: Display network interfaces stats (RX/TX etc)
$ netstat -i
Task: Display output for active/established connections only
$ netstat -e
$ netstat -te
$ netstat -tue
Where,
* -t : TCP connections
* -u : UDP connections
* -e : Established
Task: Test network connectivity
Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts, routers, servers etc with ping command. This verifies connectivity exists between local host and remote network system:
$ ping router
$ ping 192.168.1.254
$ ping cyberciti.biz
See simple Linux system monitoring with ping command and scripts for more information.
Task: Use GUI (Graphical Configuration) network Tool
If you are new, use GUI configuration tool, type the following command at terminal:
$ network-admin &
Above command is Ubuntu's GUI for configuring network connections tool.
Final tip - Learn how find out more information about commands
A man page is your best friend when you wanted to learn more about particular command or syntax. For example, read detailed information about ifconfig and netstat command:
$ man ifconfig
$ man netstat
Just get a short help with all command options by appending --help option to each command:
$ netstat --help
Find out what command is used for particular task by searching the short descriptions and manual page names for the keyword:
$ man -k 'delete directory'
$ apropos -s 1 remove
Display short descriptions of a command:
$ whatis rm
$ whatis netstat
Linux offers an excellent collection of utilities, which can be use to finding the files and executables, remember you cannot memorize all the commands and files ;)
Monday, October 18, 2010
TX31 Compfiling
resource:
http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html
http://www.cs.iit.edu/~agam/cs512/lect-notes/opencv-intro/opencv-intro.html
http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/prepostpath.htm
http://www.appistry.com/community/forums/content/cannot-restore-segment-prot-after-reloc-permission-denied
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LibraryArchives-StaticAndDynamic.html
OpenCV2.1
http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/InstallGuide
CMake
http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html
http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html
http://www.cs.iit.edu/~agam/cs512/lect-notes/opencv-intro/opencv-intro.html
http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/prepostpath.htm
http://www.appistry.com/community/forums/content/cannot-restore-segment-prot-after-reloc-permission-denied
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LibraryArchives-StaticAndDynamic.html
OpenCV2.1
http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/InstallGuide
CMake
http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The HID programming
This article is from http://www.lvr.com/hidpage.htm
Resources:
http://www.kadtronix.com/usbhidapi_usr.htm
Basics
My HID FAQ.
HID webpage from the USB-IF.
Windows programming
You can use Windows' built-in HID (human interface device) drivers to communicate with devices that conform to the USB's HID class specification. There's no need for a custom driver; the device uses the drivers included in Windows. Use any programming language that supports calling API functions. The device doesn't have to have a "human interface." Any device that can function within the limits of the HID specification (control and interrupt transfers only) may be able to be designed as a HID.
Microsoft's WDK has documentation for the HID functions and an overview of how to use them. The WDK also includes the header files to use with Visual C++ programs that access HID-class devices (hidsdi.h, hidusage.h, hidpi.h).
Human Input Devices. The Windows HID API from Microsoft.
Microsoft's DirectX technology includes DirectInput, which supports communications with HID-class game controllers (in both directions, in spite of the name), without requiring custom drivers. Microsoft's DirectX Developer Center has the latest info.
Use Raw Input to read data from a specific keyboard, mouse, or game controller.
A Usenet discussion about using HIDs under Windows CE. For other posts on this topic, search the newsgroups microsoft.public.windowsce* from groups.google.com/advanced_search.
Articles
HIDs Up by Jan Axelson, Embedded Systems Programming. From Embedded Systems Programming.
Using the HID class eases the job of writing USB device drivers by Stuart Allman. From EDN.
Making USB C# friendly. Article by Ashley Deakin in VSJ.
Books
USB Complete includes three chapters on HID firmware and application programming.
Chapter 13: Human Interface Devices. From Programming the Microsoft Windows Driver Model, Second Edition by Walter Oney.
Tools
Software
HIDMaker creates device firmware and a Windows application from information you provide. Also available are the AnyHID test program and the USBWatch software-only protocol analyzer. From Trace Systems Inc.
The SimpleHIDWrite utility tests HID-class devices. The HidTest utility also tests HIDs with a variety of API calls. HidTest.zip contains the application and HidTestSource.zip contains the source files in Delphi. All from Robert Marquardt.
Robert Marquardt's HID Controller component suite for Delphi.
USB HID API Function Library. From Kadtronix.
Hardware
MouseWarrior, KeyWarrior, JoyWarrior, IO-Warrier, and IO-Warrior 24PowerVampire (for using USB as a power supply). Available as programmed chips or kits. From Code Mercenaries.
My example code
Host applications and device firmware to work with them. Thank you to everyone who has helped by contributing bug reports and often the fixes along with them.
Host applications
My HID applications below communicate with generic (custom) HIDs. Each supports exchanging Input, Output, and Feature reports and shows how to search for devices that use a particular interface GUID. All except the Visual Basic 6 code show how to use RegisterDeviceNotification and WM_DEVICE_CHANGE messages to detect when a device is attached or removed.
Visual Basic .NET
generic_hid_vb. Created with Visual Studio 2008 for the .NET Framework 2.0 or later. Updated 1/12/10.
Visual C# (C Sharp)
generic_hid_cs. Created with Visual Studio 2008 for the .NET Framework 2.0 or later. Updated 1/12/10.
usbhidio_V2.3.cs. My VB HIDClass application ported to C#. From Gordon Vance. (Bug report: change: if (MyEnvironment.Version >= Version98SE) to if (MyEnvironment.Version <= Version98SE).
Visual Basic 6
Usbhidio2
Visual C++ 6
Usbhidio_vc6. This project will load into and run in Visual Studio. The project requires the header files hid.lib, hid.h, and hidsdi.h from the WDK.
1. If you get this errror on attempting to compile:
DBT_DEVTYP_DEVICEINTERFACE, PDEV_BROADCAST_DEVICEINTERFACE, HDEVNOTIFY, DEVICE_NOTIFY_WINDOW_HANDLE undeclared
Set WINVER = 0x0500 or higher in stdafx.h
For more info, go to groups.google.com and search on:
"DEV_BROADCAST_DEVICEINTERFACE" "undeclared identifier"
2. HidD_GetInputReport and HidD_SetInputReport require Windows XP or later.
Generic HID device firmware
HID firmware for communicating with the Windows host code above.
Microchip PIC18F4550
pic_usb_device_hid_generic_10.zip is is my Microchip PIC microcontroller firmware for generic HIDs. Written for the PIC 18F4550 and Microchip's MPLAB C18 compiler with the Microchip Application Libraries V2.6a. See the readme file to find out how to create the project in the Framework directory structure. (The Framework includes a HID example, but my code also supports vendor-defined control transfers.) Updated 4/22/10.
Older versions
Use the newest Framework and firmware unless you have a compelling reason not to.
For the Framework V2.5. generic_hid_fsusb_fw2-5.zip
For the Framework V2.3. Generic_HID_c18_fsusb_fwv2-3.zip
For the Framework. V2.1. Generic_HID_C18_FSUSB
For the Framework V1.x. mchpfsusb_ghid.zip
Cypress Semiconductor EZ-USB FX2
fx2hid.zip runs on Cypress' FX2 EZ-USB chips at full and high speeds. It's adapted from Cypress' frameworks examples and requires the full version of the Keil C compiler.
Cypress Semiconductor Encore
Enchid.zip for Cypress Encore chips (CY637xx). Assembly code.
Cypress Semiconductor EZ-USB
fwhid.zip for Cypress EZ-USB chips. In C. More information.
Cypress Semiconductor EZ-USB Buttons and Lights
A version of John Hyde's buttons and lights code for the USBSimm module. (The module is no longer available.) My code supports interrupt Out transfers for Output reports.
Cypress Semiconductor CY63000
Usbhidio.zip (61k) contains assembly-code firmware and host software for communicating with a Cypress CY7C63000 microcontroller (obsolete). The code runs on Cypress' 3650 Developer's Kit and CY3640 Starter Kit. Cypress has discontinued the Starter Kit. The Hi-Lo EPROM programmer included in the Starter Kit was Cypress part CY3649. The host software is Visual Basic 6 code. Bug list and fixes for usbhidio.
Cypress Semiconductor CY63000 firmware plus Visual Basic code using an ActiveX Exe server
HIDDemo2.zip (70k) is an enhanced version of usbhidio. Like usbhidio that uses an ActiveX Exe server to handle reading from the device.
Other code
Code from other sources.
Device firmware for use with my .NET HID applications
These firmware examples are designed to work with my PC HID applications above.
Cypress Semiconductor 66113
Hidhub1.zip contains a version of my generic HID-class firmware for Cypress' CY7C66113 hub & peripheral chip. The firmware enumerates as a compound device made up of a 4-port hub and my usbhidio device. It runs on the 3652 development kit and will communicate with my hidvb and usbhidioc software. This code is provided by Mat Laibowitz.
Microchip PIC
Firmware for the PIC16C745/765 to enable using my HID .NET and usbhidioc software. From Microchip. For more PIC advice, see USB and PIC Microprocessors 16C745 and 18F2455 from Alan Macek.
Assembly code and C firmware for the PIC16C745 and PIC18F2455. From Bradley A. Minch at Olin College
The PICBasic Pro Basic compiler includes instructions to perform HID communications, for use with PICMicros with USB support. From microEngineering Labs Inc.
My Very First USB Peripheral. A description of a PIC16C745 HID project. From Technology Stir Fry.
More HID firmware
Atmel
Atmel's AT90USBKey demonstration board for the AT90USB AVR microcontroller has generic HID, keyboard, and mouse applications.
Automator is a HID project for the Atmel AVR-USB. Includes host code. From Objective Development Software.
Cypress Semiconductor
Example HID Firmware in C for Cypress enCoRe devices. From Stephen Santarelli.
John Hyde's USB Design By Example site has HID examples in Visual Basic and Visual C++. I have a version of the buttons and lights firmware that supports interrupt Out transfers.
The MO1002 USB to UART is a HID device that translates between asynchronous serial data and USB using Windows' HID drivers. Includes schematics, firmware, and a Visual C++ application. The chip used is Cypress' CY7C63001. From Moto Development Group.
Microchip
Microchip's USB Framework firmware includes HID examples..
FMSUSB is a RC(PPM) to FMS (Flying Model Simulator) USB interface. Uses a PIC16C745. From Walter Zanette.
A firmware-only HID (no hardware device controller) using a Microchip 16F84A to control a parallel LCD module (HD44780 compatible) via USB. (Spanish)
RcJoystick NG is an interface between a USB port and the buddy box connector on many RC Transmitters. From Alessio e Andrea.
ST-Ericsson (formerly NXP Semiconductors/Philips)
Interfacing a Game Boy Advance to a PC using a PIC16F877 and PDIUSBD12. From Rob Meerman.
Host code
HID USB Driver / Library. A C# DLL. From Florian Leitner.
USB Hid Device Library for .NET. From Mike O'Brien.
HID component for C# .NET. A project from the Avans Hogeschool in The Netherlands.
Controlling the Logitech iFeel Mouse. Experiments with force feedback. Daniel C. Moore
Resources:
http://www.kadtronix.com/usbhidapi_usr.htm
Basics
My HID FAQ.
HID webpage from the USB-IF.
Windows programming
You can use Windows' built-in HID (human interface device) drivers to communicate with devices that conform to the USB's HID class specification. There's no need for a custom driver; the device uses the drivers included in Windows. Use any programming language that supports calling API functions. The device doesn't have to have a "human interface." Any device that can function within the limits of the HID specification (control and interrupt transfers only) may be able to be designed as a HID.
Microsoft's WDK has documentation for the HID functions and an overview of how to use them. The WDK also includes the header files to use with Visual C++ programs that access HID-class devices (hidsdi.h, hidusage.h, hidpi.h).
Human Input Devices. The Windows HID API from Microsoft.
Microsoft's DirectX technology includes DirectInput, which supports communications with HID-class game controllers (in both directions, in spite of the name), without requiring custom drivers. Microsoft's DirectX Developer Center has the latest info.
Use Raw Input to read data from a specific keyboard, mouse, or game controller.
A Usenet discussion about using HIDs under Windows CE. For other posts on this topic, search the newsgroups microsoft.public.windowsce* from groups.google.com/advanced_search.
Articles
HIDs Up by Jan Axelson, Embedded Systems Programming. From Embedded Systems Programming.
Using the HID class eases the job of writing USB device drivers by Stuart Allman. From EDN.
Making USB C# friendly. Article by Ashley Deakin in VSJ.
Books
USB Complete includes three chapters on HID firmware and application programming.
Chapter 13: Human Interface Devices. From Programming the Microsoft Windows Driver Model, Second Edition by Walter Oney.
Tools
Software
HIDMaker creates device firmware and a Windows application from information you provide. Also available are the AnyHID test program and the USBWatch software-only protocol analyzer. From Trace Systems Inc.
The SimpleHIDWrite utility tests HID-class devices. The HidTest utility also tests HIDs with a variety of API calls. HidTest.zip contains the application and HidTestSource.zip contains the source files in Delphi. All from Robert Marquardt.
Robert Marquardt's HID Controller component suite for Delphi.
USB HID API Function Library. From Kadtronix.
Hardware
MouseWarrior, KeyWarrior, JoyWarrior, IO-Warrier, and IO-Warrior 24PowerVampire (for using USB as a power supply). Available as programmed chips or kits. From Code Mercenaries.
My example code
Host applications and device firmware to work with them. Thank you to everyone who has helped by contributing bug reports and often the fixes along with them.
Host applications
My HID applications below communicate with generic (custom) HIDs. Each supports exchanging Input, Output, and Feature reports and shows how to search for devices that use a particular interface GUID. All except the Visual Basic 6 code show how to use RegisterDeviceNotification and WM_DEVICE_CHANGE messages to detect when a device is attached or removed.
Visual Basic .NET
generic_hid_vb. Created with Visual Studio 2008 for the .NET Framework 2.0 or later. Updated 1/12/10.
Visual C# (C Sharp)
generic_hid_cs. Created with Visual Studio 2008 for the .NET Framework 2.0 or later. Updated 1/12/10.
usbhidio_V2.3.cs. My VB HIDClass application ported to C#. From Gordon Vance. (Bug report: change: if (MyEnvironment.Version >= Version98SE) to if (MyEnvironment.Version <= Version98SE).
Visual Basic 6
Usbhidio2
Visual C++ 6
Usbhidio_vc6. This project will load into and run in Visual Studio. The project requires the header files hid.lib, hid.h, and hidsdi.h from the WDK.
1. If you get this errror on attempting to compile:
DBT_DEVTYP_DEVICEINTERFACE, PDEV_BROADCAST_DEVICEINTERFACE, HDEVNOTIFY, DEVICE_NOTIFY_WINDOW_HANDLE undeclared
Set WINVER = 0x0500 or higher in stdafx.h
For more info, go to groups.google.com and search on:
"DEV_BROADCAST_DEVICEINTERFACE" "undeclared identifier"
2. HidD_GetInputReport and HidD_SetInputReport require Windows XP or later.
Generic HID device firmware
HID firmware for communicating with the Windows host code above.
Microchip PIC18F4550
pic_usb_device_hid_generic_10.zip is is my Microchip PIC microcontroller firmware for generic HIDs. Written for the PIC 18F4550 and Microchip's MPLAB C18 compiler with the Microchip Application Libraries V2.6a. See the readme file to find out how to create the project in the Framework directory structure. (The Framework includes a HID example, but my code also supports vendor-defined control transfers.) Updated 4/22/10.
Older versions
Use the newest Framework and firmware unless you have a compelling reason not to.
For the Framework V2.5. generic_hid_fsusb_fw2-5.zip
For the Framework V2.3. Generic_HID_c18_fsusb_fwv2-3.zip
For the Framework. V2.1. Generic_HID_C18_FSUSB
For the Framework V1.x. mchpfsusb_ghid.zip
Cypress Semiconductor EZ-USB FX2
fx2hid.zip runs on Cypress' FX2 EZ-USB chips at full and high speeds. It's adapted from Cypress' frameworks examples and requires the full version of the Keil C compiler.
Cypress Semiconductor Encore
Enchid.zip for Cypress Encore chips (CY637xx). Assembly code.
Cypress Semiconductor EZ-USB
fwhid.zip for Cypress EZ-USB chips. In C. More information.
Cypress Semiconductor EZ-USB Buttons and Lights
A version of John Hyde's buttons and lights code for the USBSimm module. (The module is no longer available.) My code supports interrupt Out transfers for Output reports.
Cypress Semiconductor CY63000
Usbhidio.zip (61k) contains assembly-code firmware and host software for communicating with a Cypress CY7C63000 microcontroller (obsolete). The code runs on Cypress' 3650 Developer's Kit and CY3640 Starter Kit. Cypress has discontinued the Starter Kit. The Hi-Lo EPROM programmer included in the Starter Kit was Cypress part CY3649. The host software is Visual Basic 6 code. Bug list and fixes for usbhidio.
Cypress Semiconductor CY63000 firmware plus Visual Basic code using an ActiveX Exe server
HIDDemo2.zip (70k) is an enhanced version of usbhidio. Like usbhidio that uses an ActiveX Exe server to handle reading from the device.
Other code
Code from other sources.
Device firmware for use with my .NET HID applications
These firmware examples are designed to work with my PC HID applications above.
Cypress Semiconductor 66113
Hidhub1.zip contains a version of my generic HID-class firmware for Cypress' CY7C66113 hub & peripheral chip. The firmware enumerates as a compound device made up of a 4-port hub and my usbhidio device. It runs on the 3652 development kit and will communicate with my hidvb and usbhidioc software. This code is provided by Mat Laibowitz.
Microchip PIC
Firmware for the PIC16C745/765 to enable using my HID .NET and usbhidioc software. From Microchip. For more PIC advice, see USB and PIC Microprocessors 16C745 and 18F2455 from Alan Macek.
Assembly code and C firmware for the PIC16C745 and PIC18F2455. From Bradley A. Minch at Olin College
The PICBasic Pro Basic compiler includes instructions to perform HID communications, for use with PICMicros with USB support. From microEngineering Labs Inc.
My Very First USB Peripheral. A description of a PIC16C745 HID project. From Technology Stir Fry.
More HID firmware
Atmel
Atmel's AT90USBKey demonstration board for the AT90USB AVR microcontroller has generic HID, keyboard, and mouse applications.
Automator is a HID project for the Atmel AVR-USB. Includes host code. From Objective Development Software.
Cypress Semiconductor
Example HID Firmware in C for Cypress enCoRe devices. From Stephen Santarelli.
John Hyde's USB Design By Example site has HID examples in Visual Basic and Visual C++. I have a version of the buttons and lights firmware that supports interrupt Out transfers.
The MO1002 USB to UART is a HID device that translates between asynchronous serial data and USB using Windows' HID drivers. Includes schematics, firmware, and a Visual C++ application. The chip used is Cypress' CY7C63001. From Moto Development Group.
Microchip
Microchip's USB Framework firmware includes HID examples..
FMSUSB is a RC(PPM) to FMS (Flying Model Simulator) USB interface. Uses a PIC16C745. From Walter Zanette.
A firmware-only HID (no hardware device controller) using a Microchip 16F84A to control a parallel LCD module (HD44780 compatible) via USB. (Spanish)
RcJoystick NG is an interface between a USB port and the buddy box connector on many RC Transmitters. From Alessio e Andrea.
ST-Ericsson (formerly NXP Semiconductors/Philips)
Interfacing a Game Boy Advance to a PC using a PIC16F877 and PDIUSBD12. From Rob Meerman.
Host code
HID USB Driver / Library. A C# DLL. From Florian Leitner.
USB Hid Device Library for .NET. From Mike O'Brien.
HID component for C# .NET. A project from the Avans Hogeschool in The Netherlands.
Controlling the Logitech iFeel Mouse. Experiments with force feedback. Daniel C. Moore
Friday, October 15, 2010
Compiling Software With Debian Linux
Note: There are many sources available which cover patching and upgrading the kernel. It involves downloading patch files or the Linux kernel source code and compiling a new kernel. This is not the best practice to follow on most Linux systems. Most distributions customize the kernel. Any such customizations would be lost if you do a generic kernel upgrade.
Upgrading the kernel on your Debian system can be done easily (kind of) using the the apt package tool to install a "kernel-image" package. The main reason for upgrading a kernel is to support a new piece of hardware or implement some new function. Note that the Debian CDs offer numerous newer kernel packages. If none of the newer kernels on your CDs don't support some new hardware or function, implement the new hardware driver or function by using a loadable module rather than by upgrading your kernel. Loadable modules are discussed on this page.
There is a lot of free software out there that is written for Linux/UNIX that's only available in source code format. As explained on the Basics page, this is the most efficient way for the developers to distribute their software. When you obtain the source code file(s) you compile them to generate an executable binary that's specific to your OS and hardware platform. Knowing how to compile source files is an indispensible skill in the Linux/UNIX world so we'll dedicate a good part of this page to it.
As mentioned on the Packages page, compiling programs can be a frustrating experience. You can run into all kinds of errors due to outdated library files, certain assumptions made by the programmer (which don't hold true on your system), and numerous other causes. Save yourself some grief and use packages whenever possible or at least use pre-compiled binaries if they're available for your particular system. On the bright side, the fact that Debian is distributed with over 14,000 packages you'd be hard-pressed to find something that isn't available as a package. Having said that, if all you can get is the source code, get that and press on.
There's actually two steps involved in generating an executable binary from a source file, compiling and linking. Most programs, whether written for PCs or mainframes, act pretty much the same way. They'll make "calls" to the operating system for specific "services" like "Give me the current date" or "Tell me which user is running this program". It would be a pain if programmers had to write the same code over and over again in every program they wrote to handle these common functions. To address this there are things called "libraries" that contain the code for tons of these routine tasks. Instead of writing the actual code to do a task, programmers simply add references to these library routines (often referred to as "function calls") in the source code of their program. Each of these routines (or "functions") has a unique name, and the programmer uses this name in their reference.
Once a programmer has written the source code for a program, which you may recall from the Basics page is in a human-readable text file format, they "compile" it using a compiler program. Each programming language has its own compiler (or several of them). The compiler program reads the text source code file as input and spits out a binary file called an "object" file. It's merely a binary (machine-readable) version of the programmer's soure code file, complete with those references to library routines.
The next step is called "linking" and it's where those library references are taken care of. The linker is also just another program. It reads in several files, the object file that was generated by the compiler and one or more library files. Every time the linker finds a reference to a library routine in the object file, it reads the library files and finds that routine. It then replaces the programmer's reference with the code for the routine from the library file. After it has replaced all the references with code from the library files the linker then spits out the executable binary file.
Compiling a program
In Linux, the make utility handles compiling and linking. When you run the make utility you'll see lines that start with gcc which stands for GNU C Compiler. You may also see error messages with the words:
unresolved symbols
This means that the during the linking process a library routine that is referenced in the object file couldn't be found in any of the library files. This may indicate that your library files are out of date or you're missing a library file. Later in this page you'll use the apt utility to add a package which contains a library file because a routine in it is referenced by the source code we use.
Another common reason for errors when trying to compile drivers is that the kernel source code and/or header files are not present. If you plan on compiling drivers for devices (such as the Logitech QuickCam) that don't have a driver included with Debian, you'll need to install those packages before you compile the drivers. (See the Going Modular section below.)
So where does all this compiling and linking take place? Most Linux systems have a /usr/local subdirectory. The "local" refers to things that are specific to the local machine. In other words, if a particular program isn't installed on all Linux systems by default, then it represents something that is additional to that particlar local machine. So most third-party programs and utilities should be installed under this /usr/local subdirectory.
There are quite a few subdirectories under the /usr/local subdirectory. Two of them are /usr/local/src (for source code files) and /usr/local/bin (for binaries). The make utility will usually put any newly-compiled binaries in the /usr/local/bin directory.
With Linux, you typically issue four commands to compile, link, and install a program:
./configure (may not have this)
make
make install
make clean
configure is usually an extremely long and hideously complex shell script that the program's author (hopefully) generated to make your compiling experience easier. It basically checks out your system to see what you have and where it is and to make sure it has everything it needs. I have also seen this same type of script given the name of the program or driver with a .sh extension (example 'myprogram.sh' instead of 'configure'). However, such scripts are no guarantee of a successful compile. Such a script may also create a thing called a "makefile" that is used by the make utility in the next step.
The make utility is what does the actual compiling and linking. If it's going to bomb, this is where it will bomb.
make install puts the compiled binary file in the proper (/usr/local/bin ) subdirectory.
make clean cleans up temporary files that were generated by the compiling and linking processes.
Now that you know what you'll be doing, and how to do, lets compile a program. (Even though compiling is only one step in the process, the term "compile" is often used to refer to the entire process of compiling, linking, and installing.)
Programs and Utilities Top of page
If you're not familier with IRC (Internet Relay Chat), it's like an on-line chat room that you can access using an IRC client. Organizations or individuals will set up IRC servers that those with IRC clients can access and hold on-line, real-time discussions. You can see everything that all other chat members type into their IRC client and everyone else can see everything you type into your IRC client.
Since one of Debian's support options is via an IRC chat room, we'll use the source code for an IRC client for our example. The IRC client we'll use is called ScrollZ (www.scrollz.com). It is a "console" client, meaning it runs in the character-based interface of a shell. No GUI is required. However, it does use a thing called ncurses (also sometimes referred to as just "curses") which allows graphical-type displays on the console screen.
While several ncurses packages are already installed on your system, one is missing. (Found that out through one of those frustrating compiling experiences I was talking about.) It's a library file that contains a routine called tgetent that the linker looks for because it's referenced in the source code. We'll need to add the package that contains this library file. Naturally, your Debian system will need Internet connectivity so you can FTP the ScrollZ tar ball to your system (you'll see how below) or you can download it using a different system and FTP it to your Debian system.
Install the needed ncurses package (off of CD #3) using the command:
apt-get install libncurses5-dev
The next step is to download the ScrollZ client source code tar ball. When you are going to ftp a source code tar ball to your system, you'll want to be in the appropriate subdirectory before you initiate the transfer so that it ends up in the right spot. As such, we use the following two commands to start the process of downloading the ScrollZ source code tar ball:
cd /usr/local/src
ftp ftp.scrollz.com
Enter anonymous when prompted for a user name and your e-mail address when prompted for a password. (This is just customary, they're not collecting e-mail addresses so they can spam you.) Once you're logged in, download the ScrollZ source tar ball using the following commands at the ftp> prompt:
cd pub/ScrollZ/source
ls
get ScrollZ-1.9.3.tar.gz
quit
The ls command will show you what files are available. By the time you try this the ScrollZ-1.9.3.tar.gz may no longer be available so just download the latest version file that ends with the .gz extension. You'll see a line that says:
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection...
and it will just seem to sit there. The file is downloading. There's just no progress indicator.
As mentioned back on the Basics page, when you extract a tar ball it extracts to the same directory structure that was tar-ed. Many tar balls do contain subdirectories. The convention is that the parent directory has the same name as the downloaded file, minus the .tar.gz stuff. (This isn't always followed however.) So if we use the following command to extract the tar ball we just downloaded:
tar -zxvf ScrollZ-1.9.3.tar.gz
we'll end up with the following subdirectory:
/usr/local/src/ScrollZ-1.9.3
which will contain the extracted contents of the tar ball. If we use the commands:
cd ScrollZ-1.9.3
ls -laF
we'll see these contents. You will see several things here that are common practices with source tar balls. You will typically see documentation files with names like (or start with) README which normally contains general information about the program and INSTALL which has instructions for installing the program. (The names being in upper-case is also common for documentation files.) These are text files that you can read with any text editor. There is often also a /doc or /documentation subdirectory with more text file documents like a user manual. If you run into problems installing a program the first place you should look is the documentation files, especially anything related to installation. ScrollZ's INSTALL.ScrollZ installation documentation file is located in the /doc subdirectory.
We see that there is (thankfully) a configure shell script. So as mentioned above, the first command we use is to run this shell script. We precede the name of the shell script with a ./ because the subdirectory it's in isn't in our system's path. So type in:
./configure
and you'll see a ton of text go flying by on your screen. At the end of all of it will hopefully (instead of an error message) be some text telling you to do a 'make'. Just because it tells you do to a make doesn't mean you should. Use the Shift-PageUp key combination to look for lines with "could not find" or "cannot locate" in them. These lines typically list a function name that couldn't be found in any library and you'll need to find out what library is needed before proceeding. If no such lines exist (which they shouldn't because we downloaded the additional library earlier), we can do a make:
make
You may see some warning messages during the compiling process. If any of them are serious enough to be a show-stopper the compile will bomb out with error messages. Otherwise, it will complete successfully with a lot of stuff on the screen.
Next we do a:
make install
to install the files in their respective directories. Then, finally, a:
make clean
Thats it! You've compiled and installed a program from source code. Now you can make sure the program is in the path by typing in:
whereis scrollz
and we see that it's in the:
/usr/local/bin
directory (where the make install put it). Actually, the scrollz file is just a symbolic link to an executable binary named scrollz-1.9.3 which is in the same directory.
Before we run the program we have to set up a few environment variables and files. First we'll add the environment variables to our profile so that we don't have to manually set them every time we use the program. Open your profile file with the command:
nano ~/.profile
(recall that the ~ character represents the path to your home directory) and add the following three statements:
IRCNICK="penguin"
IRCSERVER="irc.debian.org"
export IRCNICK IRCSERVER
Use whatever nickname you want for yourself in place of penguin but make it somewhat unique (and short). Then exit the editor saving the file.
Next, create a directory that the program looks for inside your home directory using the command:
mkdir ~/.ScrollZ
Create an empty 'save' file in this new directory with the command:
touch ~/.ScrollZ/ScrollZ.save
Now, using a text editor, create an empty "rc" file that the program looks for in your home directory (make sure the name starts with a period) with the command:
nano ~/.scrollzrc
and enter the following statement into this file:
set load_path ~/.ScrollZ
Exit the editor saving the file. (Almost done.) Now you can either reboot the system or manually add the above variables to the current running environment using the following commands:
IRCNICK="penguin"
IRCSERVER="irc.debian.org"
export IRCNICK IRCSERVER
That takes care of the program's setup. If you're not still connected to the Internet, reconnect now. Since the program is in our path, all we have to do to run it is type in:
scrollz
You'll see an error saying that it couldn't open the ScrollZ.save file with the cursor flashing in the lower-left corner of the screen. Now that you're in the program, you'll be entering IRC (and some ScrollZ) commands, not Linux commands. Enter the following command:
/sve
and press Enter to create the file and save the settings.
You're now connected to debian.org's IRC server but you have to enter the Debian room. To do that, enter the IRC command:
/join #debian
You're in! Anything you type on the line below the blue bar (where the cursor is currently flashing) will be displayed in the room (after you press Enter). That's why you have to start all IRC commands with a slash (/) character. Those aren't displayed as chat. The lj on the right side of the blue bar stands for "last joined" and your nickname will be there until someone else joins the room after you.
So what if you're in the chat room and you want to try something at a shell prompt? Just press the Alt-F2 key combination to get to a different console. Pressing Alt-F1 will take you back to the console your chat session is in.
The following IRC commands will be helpful during your chat sessions:
/join #room-name
/leave #room-name
/quit parting message to participants
/msg individual-participant-nickname private-message
/whois your-nickname
/whois another-participants-nickname
Note that /quit exits the ScrollZ program in addition to leaving the room.
When the room is busy it's best to begin messages intended for a specific particpant with that participant's nickname. When asking for help with a problem, be as specific as possible and supply as much relevant information as possible.
That's the good news. Now the bad news. In many cases the above compiling/linking/installing procedure won't do you any good. Many source tar balls don't contain a configure shell script. In that case all you can do is look for documentation files or Web pages on the author's Web site for compiling and installation information. In some cases the author may assume those using their program are experienced Linux/UNIX administrators and won't offer much in the way of documentation. If this is the case, e-mail them asking for more specific instructions. Their e-mail address or the URL to their Web site will likely be given in one of documentation files.
Drivers
That's compiling a program. The other big thing that often needs compiling are drivers. Most drivers compile into driver "modules" which we explain in the next section.
Let's look at the driver for the popular 3Com 3C509 NIC. The source code for the driver is available at www.scyld.com/network/3c509.html. Near the bottom of the source code file are the following commented lines:
/*
* Local variables:
* compile-command: "gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c 3c509.c"
* version-control: t
* kept-new-versions: 5
* c-indent-level: 4
* c-basic-offset: 4
* tab-width: 4
* End:
*/
Notice that the command needed to compile the driver is given in these comments. However, also on the above Web page, right next to the link for the driver source code, is a link on how to set the driver up as a module. Any author or company that makes driver source code available should supply you with similar information either as comments in the source code, in an accompanying README file, or on a Web page. If they don't, e-mail them asking for it. If they get enough e-mails perhaps they'll find it beneficial to create a README file or Web page.
Going Modular Top of page
One of the things the kernel has to do is interface with certain pieces of hardware. Like other operating systems, these pieces of hardware have their own individual software drivers. One of the reasons the kernel has grown in size over the years is that more and more drivers for more and more hardware devices have been compiled into the kernel.
With all of the new hardware coming out, trying to compile in all of the available hardware drivers would result in a huge kernel that takes up a good chunk (if not all) of your system's memory. While it may make sense to compile certain drivers into the kernel (like IDE and SCSI hard-drive controller drivers), the majority of hardware drivers can be compiled as loadable modules and dynamically added to the running kernel as needed.
In addition to hardware device drivers, modules are also developed for new filesystems and new kernel routines like data encryption. Adding modules does not increase the size of the kernel. They merely take up more disk space (and more memory if they are loaded).
By modulizing drivers you reduce the size of the base kernel which cuts down kernel memory requirements. Using modules is also safer. If you compile a new driver into a kernel there's no way to get it out. If there's a bug in it you're pretty much screwed. You'd have to roll back to your previous kernel. Being able to manage loadable modules means that if you load a new module and it causes problems, you simply unload it.
The nice thing about modules is that if you do find yourself needing to add some new drivers or new functionality to your kernel you can do it without patching or replacing the kernel source code and recompiling everything. Loadable modules are like adding code to a running kernel.
These days drivers are all written loadable modules and a lot of times a driver module is only available in source code format (sourceforge.net provides access to many of these). Compiling a driver module isn't much different than compiling a program. You'll just end up with a file with a .o extension (the letter 'O' - not zero).
Note: The source code for many driver modules requires access to the kernel source code or just the kernel headers during the compilation process. You are not recompiling the kernel. It's just that the driver needs access to certain kernel header, source, etc. files.
If unsure what is needed by a specific driver, try compiling it with just the header files first. Debian includes a lot of "kernel-header" packages on the binary CDs. Enter the command:
apt-cache search kernel-headers
to see all of them. It's IMPORTANT that you install the one that matches the kernel you're running. Enter the command:
uname -a
to find out what kernel version you're running and install the header package that matches it exactly (it may differ depending on the processor in your system). On my system it was:
apt-get install kernel-headers-2.4.27-1-386
If the kernel source code is needed you can get that off of the binary CD set as well. Note that the kernel source tar ball is about 180 meg in size so you'll want to use the df -h command to make sure you have about 400 meg free on your hard-drive before you install the kernel source. Use the command:
apt-get install kernel-source-2.4.27
to load the kernel source off the Debian binary CD set onto your system. Note that this installs a single BZIP (compressed) file of the source code into the /usr/srcdirectory. You have to first unbzip it with the command:
bunzip2 kernel-source-2.4.27.tar.bz2
(It'll take awhile.) Then you have to untar it to create the kernel source tree using the command:
tar -xvf kernel-source-2.4.27.tar
You can delete the .tar file after the extraction to free up some disk space.
The utilities you use to manage modules are contained in the modutils package. These utilities include:
* lsmod - lists currently loaded modules
* insmod - inserts modules into the kernel
* rmmod - removes modules from the kernel
* modprobe - a better alternative to insmod because it checks for dependent modules
* depmod - builds a file which contains the dependency information used by modprobe
There are other utilities but these are the most commonly-used. They are all executable binary files and all are located in the /sbin directory.
An important point to remember is that modules may be specific to a kernel version or at least a given kernel version and higher. If a module wasn't written for your kernel version you'll get an error when you try and load it. Module file names end with a .o and are located in a subdirectory that has a parent directory with a name that includes the Linux kernel version. For example, the module files on a Debian 3.1 system are in subdirectories similar to:
/lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers/ide
/lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers/net
/lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers/video
In addition,
/lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386
is also where the file modules.dep file is located. The modules.dep file is where the module dependecy information generated by the depmod utility is stored and accessed by the modprobe utility.
For the curious, if you go looking through the system's startup files looking for insmod or modprobe commands you won't find any. One of the scripts in the /etc/init.d subdirectory that's called pretty early in the sartup process is the kerneld shell script. The kerneld shell script calls the /sbin/kerneld executable binary that causes modules to be auto-loaded as they're needed. In addition, optional modules listed in the /etc/modules file are also loaded.
If you boot your system and use the Shift-PageUp key combination to look at the messages generated early in the boot process, you'll see modules start to get loaded shortly after the init process starts.
It's at system startup where you're most likely to see module-related messages and errors. The most common one starts out:
insmod: /etc/modules.conf is more recent than....
This isn't really a problem, just a file date issue. Most of the time it'll just disappear in the course of using your system.
Compiling A Driver Module
Back on the Webcam page we found that Debian doesn't come with a driver for the popular QuickCam USB camera. There is a driver for it on sourceforge.net called qc-usb. This driver comes with a script that checks for certain things and contains the necessary compile commands. Before proceeding Make sure you've installed the kernel header files as explained earlier.
You can download the driver using the FTP utility on your Debian system (as we showed above for the ScrollZ program file) or download it using another system and FTP it to your Debian system. If you do the later you probably FTPed it up to your user home directory so you'll need to copy the file to the proper directory with the command:
cp /home/keith/qc-usb-0.6.2.tar.gz /usr/local/src
Then go into the /usr/local/src/ subdirectory and enter the command:
tar -zxvf qc-usb-0.6.2.tar.gz
and a /usr/local/src/qc-usb-0.6.2 subdirectory will be created and contain all of the files. If you list the files in the directory you'll see the quickcam.sh file which is the setup script written by the driver developer in an attempt to make creating the driver module easier for you.
Be sure you have the cam plugged in at this point. We need to supply to the quickcam.sh script with the location of the kernel header files we installed earlier. To run the script and supply it with this information we use:
./quickcam.sh LINUX_DIR=/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.4.27-1-386
It'll start out by checking for files and utilities. Disregard the warning about exporting kgcc. It'll then warn you that you shouldn't run as root but we're going to do it anyway since later in the script it would ask for the root password if we weren't.
At one point you'll see a bunch of insmod error messages. It's just trying to find out what type of USB circuitry you have and they can be ignored. Eventually you'll see a bunch of gcc compiler commands and when it's done the script will try and load the driver. When you see the line:
Name : Logitech QuickCam USB
several lines above the prompt to press Enter to continue, press Ctrl-C to exit the script. This is because we're not running a GUI. The script didn't do one thing. It didn't copy the driver to the proper location to have it auto-load during system bootup (if the cam is connected to the system when it boots up). To do that, use the command:
cp quickcam.o /lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers/usb
That's it! Reboot the system and enter the lsmod command at the shell prompt and you should see the quickcam driver loaded. Now that you have the driver auto-loading you can return to the Webcam page to continue setting up your cam server.
Unfortunately not all driver modules include setup scripts but at the very list there should be documentation available that tells you how to compile it. (Be sure to put the final .o driver file into the correct subdirectory under the /lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers directory.) The one downside to a script is that the person that wrote it may make certain assumptions about file locations, etc. that aren't true and the script may bomb out. If a script does bomb don't assume the driver won't work on your system. Try using the documentation to compile the driver manually before you give up.
Upgrading the kernel on your Debian system can be done easily (kind of) using the the apt package tool to install a "kernel-image" package. The main reason for upgrading a kernel is to support a new piece of hardware or implement some new function. Note that the Debian CDs offer numerous newer kernel packages. If none of the newer kernels on your CDs don't support some new hardware or function, implement the new hardware driver or function by using a loadable module rather than by upgrading your kernel. Loadable modules are discussed on this page.
There is a lot of free software out there that is written for Linux/UNIX that's only available in source code format. As explained on the Basics page, this is the most efficient way for the developers to distribute their software. When you obtain the source code file(s) you compile them to generate an executable binary that's specific to your OS and hardware platform. Knowing how to compile source files is an indispensible skill in the Linux/UNIX world so we'll dedicate a good part of this page to it.
As mentioned on the Packages page, compiling programs can be a frustrating experience. You can run into all kinds of errors due to outdated library files, certain assumptions made by the programmer (which don't hold true on your system), and numerous other causes. Save yourself some grief and use packages whenever possible or at least use pre-compiled binaries if they're available for your particular system. On the bright side, the fact that Debian is distributed with over 14,000 packages you'd be hard-pressed to find something that isn't available as a package. Having said that, if all you can get is the source code, get that and press on.
There's actually two steps involved in generating an executable binary from a source file, compiling and linking. Most programs, whether written for PCs or mainframes, act pretty much the same way. They'll make "calls" to the operating system for specific "services" like "Give me the current date" or "Tell me which user is running this program". It would be a pain if programmers had to write the same code over and over again in every program they wrote to handle these common functions. To address this there are things called "libraries" that contain the code for tons of these routine tasks. Instead of writing the actual code to do a task, programmers simply add references to these library routines (often referred to as "function calls") in the source code of their program. Each of these routines (or "functions") has a unique name, and the programmer uses this name in their reference.
Once a programmer has written the source code for a program, which you may recall from the Basics page is in a human-readable text file format, they "compile" it using a compiler program. Each programming language has its own compiler (or several of them). The compiler program reads the text source code file as input and spits out a binary file called an "object" file. It's merely a binary (machine-readable) version of the programmer's soure code file, complete with those references to library routines.
The next step is called "linking" and it's where those library references are taken care of. The linker is also just another program. It reads in several files, the object file that was generated by the compiler and one or more library files. Every time the linker finds a reference to a library routine in the object file, it reads the library files and finds that routine. It then replaces the programmer's reference with the code for the routine from the library file. After it has replaced all the references with code from the library files the linker then spits out the executable binary file.
Compiling a program
In Linux, the make utility handles compiling and linking. When you run the make utility you'll see lines that start with gcc which stands for GNU C Compiler. You may also see error messages with the words:
unresolved symbols
This means that the during the linking process a library routine that is referenced in the object file couldn't be found in any of the library files. This may indicate that your library files are out of date or you're missing a library file. Later in this page you'll use the apt utility to add a package which contains a library file because a routine in it is referenced by the source code we use.
Another common reason for errors when trying to compile drivers is that the kernel source code and/or header files are not present. If you plan on compiling drivers for devices (such as the Logitech QuickCam) that don't have a driver included with Debian, you'll need to install those packages before you compile the drivers. (See the Going Modular section below.)
So where does all this compiling and linking take place? Most Linux systems have a /usr/local subdirectory. The "local" refers to things that are specific to the local machine. In other words, if a particular program isn't installed on all Linux systems by default, then it represents something that is additional to that particlar local machine. So most third-party programs and utilities should be installed under this /usr/local subdirectory.
There are quite a few subdirectories under the /usr/local subdirectory. Two of them are /usr/local/src (for source code files) and /usr/local/bin (for binaries). The make utility will usually put any newly-compiled binaries in the /usr/local/bin directory.
With Linux, you typically issue four commands to compile, link, and install a program:
./configure (may not have this)
make
make install
make clean
configure is usually an extremely long and hideously complex shell script that the program's author (hopefully) generated to make your compiling experience easier. It basically checks out your system to see what you have and where it is and to make sure it has everything it needs. I have also seen this same type of script given the name of the program or driver with a .sh extension (example 'myprogram.sh' instead of 'configure'). However, such scripts are no guarantee of a successful compile. Such a script may also create a thing called a "makefile" that is used by the make utility in the next step.
The make utility is what does the actual compiling and linking. If it's going to bomb, this is where it will bomb.
make install puts the compiled binary file in the proper (/usr/local/bin ) subdirectory.
make clean cleans up temporary files that were generated by the compiling and linking processes.
Now that you know what you'll be doing, and how to do, lets compile a program. (Even though compiling is only one step in the process, the term "compile" is often used to refer to the entire process of compiling, linking, and installing.)
Programs and Utilities Top of page
If you're not familier with IRC (Internet Relay Chat), it's like an on-line chat room that you can access using an IRC client. Organizations or individuals will set up IRC servers that those with IRC clients can access and hold on-line, real-time discussions. You can see everything that all other chat members type into their IRC client and everyone else can see everything you type into your IRC client.
Since one of Debian's support options is via an IRC chat room, we'll use the source code for an IRC client for our example. The IRC client we'll use is called ScrollZ (www.scrollz.com). It is a "console" client, meaning it runs in the character-based interface of a shell. No GUI is required. However, it does use a thing called ncurses (also sometimes referred to as just "curses") which allows graphical-type displays on the console screen.
While several ncurses packages are already installed on your system, one is missing. (Found that out through one of those frustrating compiling experiences I was talking about.) It's a library file that contains a routine called tgetent that the linker looks for because it's referenced in the source code. We'll need to add the package that contains this library file. Naturally, your Debian system will need Internet connectivity so you can FTP the ScrollZ tar ball to your system (you'll see how below) or you can download it using a different system and FTP it to your Debian system.
Install the needed ncurses package (off of CD #3) using the command:
apt-get install libncurses5-dev
The next step is to download the ScrollZ client source code tar ball. When you are going to ftp a source code tar ball to your system, you'll want to be in the appropriate subdirectory before you initiate the transfer so that it ends up in the right spot. As such, we use the following two commands to start the process of downloading the ScrollZ source code tar ball:
cd /usr/local/src
ftp ftp.scrollz.com
Enter anonymous when prompted for a user name and your e-mail address when prompted for a password. (This is just customary, they're not collecting e-mail addresses so they can spam you.) Once you're logged in, download the ScrollZ source tar ball using the following commands at the ftp> prompt:
cd pub/ScrollZ/source
ls
get ScrollZ-1.9.3.tar.gz
quit
The ls command will show you what files are available. By the time you try this the ScrollZ-1.9.3.tar.gz may no longer be available so just download the latest version file that ends with the .gz extension. You'll see a line that says:
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection...
and it will just seem to sit there. The file is downloading. There's just no progress indicator.
As mentioned back on the Basics page, when you extract a tar ball it extracts to the same directory structure that was tar-ed. Many tar balls do contain subdirectories. The convention is that the parent directory has the same name as the downloaded file, minus the .tar.gz stuff. (This isn't always followed however.) So if we use the following command to extract the tar ball we just downloaded:
tar -zxvf ScrollZ-1.9.3.tar.gz
we'll end up with the following subdirectory:
/usr/local/src/ScrollZ-1.9.3
which will contain the extracted contents of the tar ball. If we use the commands:
cd ScrollZ-1.9.3
ls -laF
we'll see these contents. You will see several things here that are common practices with source tar balls. You will typically see documentation files with names like (or start with) README which normally contains general information about the program and INSTALL which has instructions for installing the program. (The names being in upper-case is also common for documentation files.) These are text files that you can read with any text editor. There is often also a /doc or /documentation subdirectory with more text file documents like a user manual. If you run into problems installing a program the first place you should look is the documentation files, especially anything related to installation. ScrollZ's INSTALL.ScrollZ installation documentation file is located in the /doc subdirectory.
We see that there is (thankfully) a configure shell script. So as mentioned above, the first command we use is to run this shell script. We precede the name of the shell script with a ./ because the subdirectory it's in isn't in our system's path. So type in:
./configure
and you'll see a ton of text go flying by on your screen. At the end of all of it will hopefully (instead of an error message) be some text telling you to do a 'make'. Just because it tells you do to a make doesn't mean you should. Use the Shift-PageUp key combination to look for lines with "could not find" or "cannot locate" in them. These lines typically list a function name that couldn't be found in any library and you'll need to find out what library is needed before proceeding. If no such lines exist (which they shouldn't because we downloaded the additional library earlier), we can do a make:
make
You may see some warning messages during the compiling process. If any of them are serious enough to be a show-stopper the compile will bomb out with error messages. Otherwise, it will complete successfully with a lot of stuff on the screen.
Next we do a:
make install
to install the files in their respective directories. Then, finally, a:
make clean
Thats it! You've compiled and installed a program from source code. Now you can make sure the program is in the path by typing in:
whereis scrollz
and we see that it's in the:
/usr/local/bin
directory (where the make install put it). Actually, the scrollz file is just a symbolic link to an executable binary named scrollz-1.9.3 which is in the same directory.
Before we run the program we have to set up a few environment variables and files. First we'll add the environment variables to our profile so that we don't have to manually set them every time we use the program. Open your profile file with the command:
nano ~/.profile
(recall that the ~ character represents the path to your home directory) and add the following three statements:
IRCNICK="penguin"
IRCSERVER="irc.debian.org"
export IRCNICK IRCSERVER
Use whatever nickname you want for yourself in place of penguin but make it somewhat unique (and short). Then exit the editor saving the file.
Next, create a directory that the program looks for inside your home directory using the command:
mkdir ~/.ScrollZ
Create an empty 'save' file in this new directory with the command:
touch ~/.ScrollZ/ScrollZ.save
Now, using a text editor, create an empty "rc" file that the program looks for in your home directory (make sure the name starts with a period) with the command:
nano ~/.scrollzrc
and enter the following statement into this file:
set load_path ~/.ScrollZ
Exit the editor saving the file. (Almost done.) Now you can either reboot the system or manually add the above variables to the current running environment using the following commands:
IRCNICK="penguin"
IRCSERVER="irc.debian.org"
export IRCNICK IRCSERVER
That takes care of the program's setup. If you're not still connected to the Internet, reconnect now. Since the program is in our path, all we have to do to run it is type in:
scrollz
You'll see an error saying that it couldn't open the ScrollZ.save file with the cursor flashing in the lower-left corner of the screen. Now that you're in the program, you'll be entering IRC (and some ScrollZ) commands, not Linux commands. Enter the following command:
/sve
and press Enter to create the file and save the settings.
You're now connected to debian.org's IRC server but you have to enter the Debian room. To do that, enter the IRC command:
/join #debian
You're in! Anything you type on the line below the blue bar (where the cursor is currently flashing) will be displayed in the room (after you press Enter). That's why you have to start all IRC commands with a slash (/) character. Those aren't displayed as chat. The lj on the right side of the blue bar stands for "last joined" and your nickname will be there until someone else joins the room after you.
So what if you're in the chat room and you want to try something at a shell prompt? Just press the Alt-F2 key combination to get to a different console. Pressing Alt-F1 will take you back to the console your chat session is in.
The following IRC commands will be helpful during your chat sessions:
/join #room-name
/leave #room-name
/quit parting message to participants
/msg individual-participant-nickname private-message
/whois your-nickname
/whois another-participants-nickname
Note that /quit exits the ScrollZ program in addition to leaving the room.
When the room is busy it's best to begin messages intended for a specific particpant with that participant's nickname. When asking for help with a problem, be as specific as possible and supply as much relevant information as possible.
That's the good news. Now the bad news. In many cases the above compiling/linking/installing procedure won't do you any good. Many source tar balls don't contain a configure shell script. In that case all you can do is look for documentation files or Web pages on the author's Web site for compiling and installation information. In some cases the author may assume those using their program are experienced Linux/UNIX administrators and won't offer much in the way of documentation. If this is the case, e-mail them asking for more specific instructions. Their e-mail address or the URL to their Web site will likely be given in one of documentation files.
Drivers
That's compiling a program. The other big thing that often needs compiling are drivers. Most drivers compile into driver "modules" which we explain in the next section.
Let's look at the driver for the popular 3Com 3C509 NIC. The source code for the driver is available at www.scyld.com/network/3c509.html. Near the bottom of the source code file are the following commented lines:
/*
* Local variables:
* compile-command: "gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c 3c509.c"
* version-control: t
* kept-new-versions: 5
* c-indent-level: 4
* c-basic-offset: 4
* tab-width: 4
* End:
*/
Notice that the command needed to compile the driver is given in these comments. However, also on the above Web page, right next to the link for the driver source code, is a link on how to set the driver up as a module. Any author or company that makes driver source code available should supply you with similar information either as comments in the source code, in an accompanying README file, or on a Web page. If they don't, e-mail them asking for it. If they get enough e-mails perhaps they'll find it beneficial to create a README file or Web page.
Going Modular Top of page
One of the things the kernel has to do is interface with certain pieces of hardware. Like other operating systems, these pieces of hardware have their own individual software drivers. One of the reasons the kernel has grown in size over the years is that more and more drivers for more and more hardware devices have been compiled into the kernel.
With all of the new hardware coming out, trying to compile in all of the available hardware drivers would result in a huge kernel that takes up a good chunk (if not all) of your system's memory. While it may make sense to compile certain drivers into the kernel (like IDE and SCSI hard-drive controller drivers), the majority of hardware drivers can be compiled as loadable modules and dynamically added to the running kernel as needed.
In addition to hardware device drivers, modules are also developed for new filesystems and new kernel routines like data encryption. Adding modules does not increase the size of the kernel. They merely take up more disk space (and more memory if they are loaded).
By modulizing drivers you reduce the size of the base kernel which cuts down kernel memory requirements. Using modules is also safer. If you compile a new driver into a kernel there's no way to get it out. If there's a bug in it you're pretty much screwed. You'd have to roll back to your previous kernel. Being able to manage loadable modules means that if you load a new module and it causes problems, you simply unload it.
The nice thing about modules is that if you do find yourself needing to add some new drivers or new functionality to your kernel you can do it without patching or replacing the kernel source code and recompiling everything. Loadable modules are like adding code to a running kernel.
These days drivers are all written loadable modules and a lot of times a driver module is only available in source code format (sourceforge.net provides access to many of these). Compiling a driver module isn't much different than compiling a program. You'll just end up with a file with a .o extension (the letter 'O' - not zero).
Note: The source code for many driver modules requires access to the kernel source code or just the kernel headers during the compilation process. You are not recompiling the kernel. It's just that the driver needs access to certain kernel header, source, etc. files.
If unsure what is needed by a specific driver, try compiling it with just the header files first. Debian includes a lot of "kernel-header" packages on the binary CDs. Enter the command:
apt-cache search kernel-headers
to see all of them. It's IMPORTANT that you install the one that matches the kernel you're running. Enter the command:
uname -a
to find out what kernel version you're running and install the header package that matches it exactly (it may differ depending on the processor in your system). On my system it was:
apt-get install kernel-headers-2.4.27-1-386
If the kernel source code is needed you can get that off of the binary CD set as well. Note that the kernel source tar ball is about 180 meg in size so you'll want to use the df -h command to make sure you have about 400 meg free on your hard-drive before you install the kernel source. Use the command:
apt-get install kernel-source-2.4.27
to load the kernel source off the Debian binary CD set onto your system. Note that this installs a single BZIP (compressed) file of the source code into the /usr/srcdirectory. You have to first unbzip it with the command:
bunzip2 kernel-source-2.4.27.tar.bz2
(It'll take awhile.) Then you have to untar it to create the kernel source tree using the command:
tar -xvf kernel-source-2.4.27.tar
You can delete the .tar file after the extraction to free up some disk space.
The utilities you use to manage modules are contained in the modutils package. These utilities include:
* lsmod - lists currently loaded modules
* insmod - inserts modules into the kernel
* rmmod - removes modules from the kernel
* modprobe - a better alternative to insmod because it checks for dependent modules
* depmod - builds a file which contains the dependency information used by modprobe
There are other utilities but these are the most commonly-used. They are all executable binary files and all are located in the /sbin directory.
An important point to remember is that modules may be specific to a kernel version or at least a given kernel version and higher. If a module wasn't written for your kernel version you'll get an error when you try and load it. Module file names end with a .o and are located in a subdirectory that has a parent directory with a name that includes the Linux kernel version. For example, the module files on a Debian 3.1 system are in subdirectories similar to:
/lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers/ide
/lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers/net
/lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers/video
In addition,
/lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386
is also where the file modules.dep file is located. The modules.dep file is where the module dependecy information generated by the depmod utility is stored and accessed by the modprobe utility.
For the curious, if you go looking through the system's startup files looking for insmod or modprobe commands you won't find any. One of the scripts in the /etc/init.d subdirectory that's called pretty early in the sartup process is the kerneld shell script. The kerneld shell script calls the /sbin/kerneld executable binary that causes modules to be auto-loaded as they're needed. In addition, optional modules listed in the /etc/modules file are also loaded.
If you boot your system and use the Shift-PageUp key combination to look at the messages generated early in the boot process, you'll see modules start to get loaded shortly after the init process starts.
It's at system startup where you're most likely to see module-related messages and errors. The most common one starts out:
insmod: /etc/modules.conf is more recent than....
This isn't really a problem, just a file date issue. Most of the time it'll just disappear in the course of using your system.
Compiling A Driver Module
Back on the Webcam page we found that Debian doesn't come with a driver for the popular QuickCam USB camera. There is a driver for it on sourceforge.net called qc-usb. This driver comes with a script that checks for certain things and contains the necessary compile commands. Before proceeding Make sure you've installed the kernel header files as explained earlier.
You can download the driver using the FTP utility on your Debian system (as we showed above for the ScrollZ program file) or download it using another system and FTP it to your Debian system. If you do the later you probably FTPed it up to your user home directory so you'll need to copy the file to the proper directory with the command:
cp /home/keith/qc-usb-0.6.2.tar.gz /usr/local/src
Then go into the /usr/local/src/ subdirectory and enter the command:
tar -zxvf qc-usb-0.6.2.tar.gz
and a /usr/local/src/qc-usb-0.6.2 subdirectory will be created and contain all of the files. If you list the files in the directory you'll see the quickcam.sh file which is the setup script written by the driver developer in an attempt to make creating the driver module easier for you.
Be sure you have the cam plugged in at this point. We need to supply to the quickcam.sh script with the location of the kernel header files we installed earlier. To run the script and supply it with this information we use:
./quickcam.sh LINUX_DIR=/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.4.27-1-386
It'll start out by checking for files and utilities. Disregard the warning about exporting kgcc. It'll then warn you that you shouldn't run as root but we're going to do it anyway since later in the script it would ask for the root password if we weren't.
At one point you'll see a bunch of insmod error messages. It's just trying to find out what type of USB circuitry you have and they can be ignored. Eventually you'll see a bunch of gcc compiler commands and when it's done the script will try and load the driver. When you see the line:
Name : Logitech QuickCam USB
several lines above the prompt to press Enter to continue, press Ctrl-C to exit the script. This is because we're not running a GUI. The script didn't do one thing. It didn't copy the driver to the proper location to have it auto-load during system bootup (if the cam is connected to the system when it boots up). To do that, use the command:
cp quickcam.o /lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers/usb
That's it! Reboot the system and enter the lsmod command at the shell prompt and you should see the quickcam driver loaded. Now that you have the driver auto-loading you can return to the Webcam page to continue setting up your cam server.
Unfortunately not all driver modules include setup scripts but at the very list there should be documentation available that tells you how to compile it. (Be sure to put the final .o driver file into the correct subdirectory under the /lib/modules/2.4.27-1-386/kernel/drivers directory.) The one downside to a script is that the person that wrote it may make certain assumptions about file locations, etc. that aren't true and the script may bomb out. If a script does bomb don't assume the driver won't work on your system. Try using the documentation to compile the driver manually before you give up.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tomcat中URL大小写问题
Tomcat中URL大小写问题
今天遇到个客户，强力要求我们软件开发人员把Tomcat设置成为URL地址大小写不敏感。
经过在网上查资料，有一个办法可以做到。就是在context.xml文件中对元素
Context定义设置caseSensitive="false"属性。
但是为了保险起见，我又到Tomcat官方网站去查元素Context定义的官方资料。官方资料的原文参考http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/config/context.html。
caseSensitive
Deprecated. This option will be removed in Tomcat 7 onwards where the default of true will always be used.
If the value of this flag is false, all case sensitivity checks will be disabled. If not specified, the default value of the flag is true.
NOTE: This flag MUST NOT be set to false on the Windows platform (or any other OS which does not have a case sensitive filesystem), as it will disable case sensitivity checks, allowing JSP source code disclosure, among other security problems.
翻译过来就是：
caseSensitive已经过时。该选项将在Tomcat7中被删除，默认值只能一直为true。
如果这个标志值被设置为false，所有大小写检查将被禁用。如果没有特别指定，默认值的标志是true。
注意：这个标志禁止在Windows平台上（或者其他任何不区分文件大小写的操作系统）设为false，因为它会禁用大小写检查，允许JSP源代码泄漏，以及其他安全问题。
搞了半天，如果你是商用系统而且运行在Windows平台上，一定要说服用户URL地址必须大小写敏感，否则会造成一系列安全问题，造成不必要的经济损失。
今天遇到个客户，强力要求我们软件开发人员把Tomcat设置成为URL地址大小写不敏感。
经过在网上查资料，有一个办法可以做到。就是在context.xml文件中对元素
Context定义设置caseSensitive="false"属性。
但是为了保险起见，我又到Tomcat官方网站去查元素Context定义的官方资料。官方资料的原文参考http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/config/context.html。
caseSensitive
Deprecated. This option will be removed in Tomcat 7 onwards where the default of true will always be used.
If the value of this flag is false, all case sensitivity checks will be disabled. If not specified, the default value of the flag is true.
NOTE: This flag MUST NOT be set to false on the Windows platform (or any other OS which does not have a case sensitive filesystem), as it will disable case sensitivity checks, allowing JSP source code disclosure, among other security problems.
翻译过来就是：
caseSensitive已经过时。该选项将在Tomcat7中被删除，默认值只能一直为true。
如果这个标志值被设置为false，所有大小写检查将被禁用。如果没有特别指定，默认值的标志是true。
注意：这个标志禁止在Windows平台上（或者其他任何不区分文件大小写的操作系统）设为false，因为它会禁用大小写检查，允许JSP源代码泄漏，以及其他安全问题。
搞了半天，如果你是商用系统而且运行在Windows平台上，一定要说服用户URL地址必须大小写敏感，否则会造成一系列安全问题，造成不必要的经济损失。
Thursday, October 7, 2010
原 RHEL5 vsftpd 配置
# cd /etc/vsftpd/
# vi vsftpd.conf
禁止匿名用户
anonymous_enable=NO
禁止所有本地用户变更目录
chroot_local_user=YES
启用可以变更目录的用户列表文件
chroot_list_enable=YES
文件中的用户可以变更目录
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
# touch /etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
# vi /etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
启动服务
# service vsftpd start
服务自动启动
# chkconfig vsftpd on
# chkconfig vsftpd --list
Turn on vsftpd ftp service
Type the following command:
# chkconfig vsftpd on
How do I start vsftpd ftp server?
Type the following command:
# service vsftpd start
How do I stop vsftpd ftp server?
Type the following command:
# service vsftpd stop
How do I restart vsftpd ftp server?
Type the following command:
# service vsftpd restart
# vi vsftpd.conf
禁止匿名用户
anonymous_enable=NO
禁止所有本地用户变更目录
chroot_local_user=YES
启用可以变更目录的用户列表文件
chroot_list_enable=YES
文件中的用户可以变更目录
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
# touch /etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
# vi /etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
启动服务
# service vsftpd start
服务自动启动
# chkconfig vsftpd on
# chkconfig vsftpd --list
Turn on vsftpd ftp service
Type the following command:
# chkconfig vsftpd on
How do I start vsftpd ftp server?
Type the following command:
# service vsftpd start
How do I stop vsftpd ftp server?
Type the following command:
# service vsftpd stop
How do I restart vsftpd ftp server?
Type the following command:
# service vsftpd restart
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