I explored the driver files again, and I think I found the driver relevant to me. But I realized that what we call a “driver” is not just a single file. Within the C files, there are references to header (.h) files, such as include statements and relational structures. It all sounds very complicated. Many files reference each other, creating a tangled web. Now I do understand what they mean when they say “architecture”. Finding my way through this is going to be very tiresome, so I found two resources to guide me: The first one is Linux Device Drivers, by Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman, and the other one is The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide by Peter Jay Salzman, Michael Burian, Ori Pomerantz, Bob Mottram, Jim Huang. I also stumbled upon a wonderful blog by an expert: https://javiercarrascocruz.github.io, which seems I’ll be visiting very often next year.

However, these books feel too heavy for me. I’m not ready yet so I’ve set another goal for myself: to practice the C language for a while. At least until I feel comfortable and I can start guessing what the code in those driver files are referring to. Otherwise it’s going to be like skimming the grammar summary of a foreign language, which I’d learn to compose well-structured texts. But I wouldn’t be able to draft even a short message with any confidence or style. In fact, I couldn’t even understand a simple text.

So I spent my Sunday going over the C tutorial again on w3schools.com and asked ChatGPT to give me a starting task, which I completed (despite a few syntax errors that I’ve learned to fix). I’ve had the chance to use the functions scanf, printf and if as well as basic math operators. I’m thinking of doing small challenges over the next 30 days (maybe even a year), at least until I reach a level where I can understand the driver code I’ll be reading. I’ll be sharing only my progress in C on this blog for a long time.