# Using device spec sheets to write drivers



## Unee0x (Jan 2, 2019)

Are there any tutorials that show you how to use a device spec sheet to write a driver for freebsd from beginning to end?


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## Sibananda Sahu (Feb 18, 2019)

Well I am afraid that nowhere you will find end to end guide on how to develop device driver with respect to device datasheet.

The reason being it's not just you read some register status or write some register etc.
There is some software logic is also involved which is independent of device specific register and most of the time device vendors will have their own protocol for data interpretation.

You can refer this Device driver book: (http://nostarch.com/bsddrivers) to understand how different FreeBSD subsystem work and what APIs you may need while developing the driver for a specific device.

Probably that's it.


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## olli@ (Feb 18, 2019)

If you really want to start writing a device driver, it's probably best to study an existing driver for a similar piece of hardware. If you say what kind of hardware you're interested in, then we could give you more specific advice. A driver for a USB network dongle is quite different from a driver for a PCI audio chip, for example.


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